What Clarko says

Sam Mitchell will don once again the number 5 for the Hawks in 2012 having just completed his tenth season at the Football Club - a career that thus far has been wonderfully consistent, he's made an enormous contribution to the progress of our Club in the time he's been here. 

Sam is now a three-time Peter Crimmins Medalist - his most recent coming off the back of an outstanding 2011. Last year also saw the birth twin daughters for Sam - taking his quickly growing family from one child in Smith to a family with three young children. For Mitch to play the type of footy he did in 2011 owes a lot to the way he and his wife Lyndall superbly handled things as a family.

Mitch has played at a high level for a long period of time, his greatest feature is his reading of the play and ability to get his hands on the footy consistently. He's a leading player in the competition in terms of clearances and possessions - making him a very very valuable player for us. He has outstanding skills on both sides of his body, probably the equal of any in the competition in that regard - meaning he's a very difficult player to try and curb at stoppages. His agility in congestion is also first class which enables him to get himself out of tight places quickly.

As for body strength, Mitch is similar to Hodge, Sewelly, Lewis - playing in the middle of the ground with amazing body strength for their size. This strength enables these midfielders to break tackles and get the ball moving in our direction which is such an important aspect of our clearance work.

Sam was once captain of our footy Club and plays a very important mentoring role at the Club now. He mentors the younger guys in the leadership group along with players who have joined our list in the last two to three seasons. Sam has taken on this responsibility with a real interest. We like the model of giving our ex-captains the opportunity to still lead and nurture those beneath them in the twilight of their career. 

Hopefully Mitch can play for us for sometime yet. He's influence is still considerable and we expect his form to continue.

Tomorrow, I'll feature guernsey number 4 in Matt Suckling, I'm sure you'll be interested in a pre-season update on Matt which I look forward to sharing tomorrow.

Thanks very much, cheers.

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 Read about more players from Clarko's Summer Series