HAWTHORN skipper Sam Mitchell has described Mark Williams’ goal celebration in the last quarter where he made a choking gesture aimed at Port Adelaide coach Mark Williams as a “brain explosion” for which he is very regretful.
“He was shattered after the game and really disappointed with his own actions and it was just a brain explosion and he was very remorseful straight away,” Mitchell said.
“It wasn’t like it had to be explained to him. He was pretty upset about it straight away.
I guess it showed just the way he spoke to the players, he showed a fair bit of remorse straight away and when it comes to dealing with certain issues like that you have to have a look at the person and how they handle it. If they think it’s a flippant, not very important thing, you probably come down on them like a tonne of bricks but I think Clarko’s (Alastair Clarkson’s) words at the end of the game echoed the rest of the footy club and the playing group.”
Mitchell insisted that Williams had not been told he was on his last warning with the club.
“I think as a collective playing group, Clarko was pretty clear after the game, before he went to the press conference, that that sort of behaviour is not going to be tolerated at our football club. Whether it’s Willo or another player you wouldn’t want to be the next player to come up with a gesture like that.”
However the 25-year-old says he wouldn’t like to see an end to goal celebrations in the AFL altogether.
“There’s a time and a place for most things. I think it depends where it’s aimed. Leon Davis kicked a brilliant goal at the weekend and he just did a little finger salute to the crowd and then he runs over to his players where the goal comes from so I think that’s always going to be a part of the game.
“If you look at any sport the celebrations for goals are fairly extensive. Perhaps not so in our game because there are a few more but I think that it’s certainly a colourful part of the game that we wouldn’t want to take completely out of it but it’s got to be aimed in a positive light and not in a negative.”
In injury news for the Hawks, Brent Guerra will undergo scans today to find the extent of his hamstring injury.
“He certainly won’t play this week and then after that you just monitor how he goes from there. Usually it’s a two, three, four week probability,” Mitchell said.
As for the knock that saw Mitchell stretchered off the field during the Hawks’ victory over the Power, he says he’s suffered worse blows in the past.
“It wasn’t too bad. I’ve had one concussion before and I lost about an hour of time. This time I didn’t lose anywhere near that much.”