Hawthorn Coach Sam Mitchell spoke to the media on Friday morning ahead of his side’s meeting with Richmond at the MCG on Sunday afternoon.
Mitchell spoke on the significance of the occasion, as Hawthorn’s Centenary Match to commemorate 100 years in the VFL/AFL.
We summarised the key points from Mitchell’s press conference on Friday morning below.
On facing Richmond
“I think they’re an exciting team and they’ve been really quite consistent through games, they had a little bit of a blowout against Fremantle a couple weeks ago, but in every other game they’ve been in it right til the end and they're hungry and keep their pressure on. There’s a level of excitement about the way the Tigers play that puts bums on seats and that sort of suits us, that’s the way we like to play as well, so there’s a little bit of fire meets fire probably playing against them, they like to play with an attacking flair and a lot of their goals are high energy and they get the crowd involved. I think they certainly seem to me like a lot of young talent in their side that are more than capable at the level already, even with limited experience along with that they’ve got a whole heap of premiership players who give them stability, so we’re certainly not taking them lightly.”
On the 100 Year celebrations
“It’s funny when you play or coach in this game, it’s very rare that you get a moment to reflect, you’re always thinking forward and what’s the next thing, and we’re certainly doing that. But this week, having a chance to look back on the 100 years of the club, a couple days ago we had the cups sitting out here and all the people who had been a part of them, it was quite daunting just the amount of goals, and premierships, and best and fairest and things that all these players have won and how they shared them together. And for our players to see the camaraderie of those guys that all played together and to see them now is fantastic. And I think the AFL has done a fantastic job of giving us a really good forum in playing against Richmond who we played our first ever game against in 1925 I think it’s a pretty special afternoon and hopefully the brown and gold will turn out, as I’m sure they will, for what will be a pretty good show. It starts at 2.30 all the entertainment, so if I was going and sitting in the stands, I’d certainly be there by then.”
On past Hawthorn personnel attending the Centenary Match
“There’s a lot of past players, staff and presidents and all those things that are coming along and we’ll look to introduce them to the players at different stages, as we have across the week. We’ve got a really proud history that our players are well aware of it as part of our induction and how we like to be really proud of our history and what we’ve been able to achieve as a football club and we’ll continue to strive to live up to their expectations which are quite significant.
“There’s so many great people from all of the eras, with Clarko (Alistair Clarkson) being a four-time premiership coach, to have him coming along to spend some time with the guys he coached and do that sort of thing. There are so many great people from every era coming along whether that’s players that you know, so whether it’s Lethal, and Hodgey, and Tucky and Ayres and Knights and the list goes on. Whether it’s the coaches or administrators, the Ian Dicker’s and Jeff Kennett’s of the world, I think it’s really fantastic that we’re able to bring our people together, I think there’s close to 200 past players coming along so it’s going to be a pretty special day.”
On replacing Karl Amon and Jack Scrimshaw
“He’s been a really important player for us Karl and he hasn’t missed too many games either, so it’s a bit of a challenge for us, losing two out of your back six is a challenge. Jack Scrimshaw and Karl both going out of the side with concussions, it gives opportunity, we’re excited about the future of this club and the playing list, Box Hill are going really well at the moment, undefeated, and lots of players that are playing at Box Hill are more than capable at AFL level and some of those will get an opportunity over this next period and that’ll start on Sunday.”
On Josh Weddle’s 50th game
“It is consecutive, that’s very impressive. When Weds got to the club, you had this great feeling that once he worked out a few things, he was going to be an impressive player for us over the journey. His flexibility we’ve started to see and I think it’s going to continue to grow. There’s people who play their 50th such as a Finn Maginness a couple of weeks ago who you’re enormously proud of because of the ebs and flows of their career and when someone like Josh Weddle plays their 50th it’s a bit of a pat on the back, good job, get out there and do your thing mate because it has been reasonably smooth sailing for him so far.”
On Jack Gunston nearing 500 goals
“I mean it would be great, it’s not something we’ve talked about or thought about too much, he hasn’t actually mentioned it to me which is interesting. The thing with Jack, he’s doing a great job on the field at the moment, and everyone is rightly talking about how important he’s been for us on the field but I still maintain, and have since the day he came back from Brisbane, his great influence is what he does off the field. The amount of coaching that he’s done with our forward group, the way that we’ve been quite good at getting marks inside 50 this year, and Adrian Hickmott has done a fantastic job but I don’t think he’s able to do his job anywhere near as well without a Luke Breust and a Jack Gunston backing him up. I know when Luke Breust kicked his 500th it was quite a big deal so I imagine it’ll be pretty similar for Jack if he can get there at some stage.”
Watch Mitchell’s full press conference below.
