Hawthorn Senior Coach Sam Mitchell is looking forward to a highly anticipated clash with Gold Coast on Thursday night at TIO Stadium.

Speaking to the media on Wednesday afternoon in Darwin, Mitchell spoke to the side’s recent history against the Suns and his hope of turning it around to open Sir Doug Nicholls Round in the Top End. 

We summarised the key points from his press conference below.

On the last time Hawthorn faced Gold Coast in Darwin

“Time will tell whether we've learned the lessons. We certainly learned an enormous amount from last time. We didn't think we handled the conditions, we didn’t handle their intensity around the ball, some on-field things, we didn’t handle and even just being in the environment. We've come a bit earlier, we’ve done a little bit more training, and we feel better prepared, but time will tell.”

On managing Jack Gunston

“We would love to have him playing every week, but as an older player who's had some physical issues over the journey, and obviously, we're quite a long way away, and he would have loved to have made the trip, but I think, for the for the longevity of him, not just in this season, but in his whole career, we want to get the best out of him for as long as we can. We have to get the best out of him, and sometimes, making sure that you can do that for a longer period is important. So pretty comfortable with the decision.”

On the Suns

“They're a good side and they're playing really well. They're playing well wherever they play. They probably had the one outlier game this year but other than that, they've been first class in the way they've gone about it. We know they're pretty well drilled, they're very highly talented and they've got talent in every line. They have a lot of early picks and a lot of players who are still finding their feet. There are a couple of young guys whose best is really, really good, so being able to restrict some of their strengths while still being able to play our own game and put on a bit of a show, we’re both reasonably high-scoring teams, so hopefully a few people tune in and we can have a good game.” 

Watch Mitchell’s full press conference below.