The Hawks have won two matches in successive weeks, with wins over North Melbourne and Port Adelaide on Sunday at AAMI Stadium.
Mitchell says that despite the two wins, there is still room for improvement.
“We’ve done it for two weeks now, but we’ve done it for stretches of two and three weeks before and haven’t been able to back it up so the challenge for us is being able to put those performances together,” Mitchell said at the Ricoh Centre on Tuesday.
“We’ve just got to try and do it on a more week-to-week basis, which is a bit of a focus for us at the moment.”
While the “unsociable” tag has been bandied around in recent weeks, Mitchell says getting back to the “unsociable Hawks” of 2008 isn’t a focus.
Instead, the focus is on consistency of effort and bring the physicality that is important to the Hawks’ recent success.
That focus has become more important, since the Hawks were “out-hunted” in the Round 9 loss to Richmond.
“We’ve been a much more physical side, a much harder side to play against since then (Richmond game) but I think the big challenge for our group is consistency week in, week out,” he said.
Mitchell says that playing a more physical brand of football can, at times be dictated by not only the mindset of the players, but also the game style of the opposition.
“Some aspect of it is mindset, but being able to play a physical game does get dictated a little bit by the opposition and how they play,” he said.
“If they’re a more physical and contested possession side, it’s obviously easier (to be more physical), but if they play a more uncontested style of game, it does make it harder to do.
“If you come with the right mindset and attitude, then in the majority of games, you’ll get the game played the way you want it.
“We know we’ve got to play a physical brand of footy if we’re going to be competitive.”
General Manager - Football Operations Mark Evans said the Club “would consider” playing Captain Luke Hodge in the development league, the reserves competition of VFL sides.
That scenario arises given that Hodge could return to football next week, and the Club’s VFL affiliate Box Hill has a bye.
Mitchell says that there’s “no point” rushing the skipper back until he’s ready to player consecutive matches.
“He hasn’t done a lot of training over the last 10 weeks really, so Hodgey has a bit of a mini pre-season ahead of him to try and get his fitness back,” Mitchell said.
“There’s no point rushing him back in and then he gets injured again.
“We’ll be a much better side when he’s back, but a fit Hodgey is going to be much better - even if it’s going to be much further away than someone who’s rushed back and a bit underdone.”
Xavier Ellis sustained a medial ligament injury in Box Hill’s win over Williamstown on Saturday, but Mitchell threw his support behind the midfielder.
“We’re going to be playing better footy if we can get him back in the side, so hopefully come the latter part of the year he can get himself in and he’ll be a little bit like Hodgey - a new recruit for us.”
Kate Salemme is a member of Hawthorn Football Club’s Digital media team reporting exclusively for hawthornfc.com.au from the Ricoh Centre.
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