Hawthorn Senior Coach Sam Mitchell has expressed his excitement about the club’s 24-hour Fundraising Day, which is progressing strongly with just hours to go.
Mitchell attended the club’s fundraising gala night on Tuesday, among generous donors as well as current and past Hawthorn stars, and reflected on how special the night was.
Speaking to the media on Wednesday morning, Mitchell also touched on the challenge that Collingwood brings, reflected on last round’s performance against Brisbane and spoke about James Sicily’s form.
We summarised the key points from his press conference below.
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On Hawthorn’s Fundraising Gala Dinner
“It was a fantastic night. You walked in, and there were just so many great Hawthorn people. A lot of them were players and past players, but also people who have supported the club, certainly the whole time I’ve been here and much longer than that. It was great to hear some great stories from the Peter Hudson's and the Jason Dunstall's of the world but also all the fans who have got their own different stories from their own different perspectives over the years. For them all to come together and be able to support the club in their own different ways, it’s a really special 24 hours for us.”
On last week’s loss to Brisbane
“The challenge with last week was that the players were trying hard, and the effort was not going into the right places. A lot of the time, we did some good things, but we just couldn’t finish our work and put the scoreboard pressure on. That was felt by all of the Hawthorn people - fans, coaches and players themselves.”
On Collingwood
“Every week, there are good teams. Players have to come out of that team, and they’re going to be good players as well. We’ve got some thoughts about the way Collingwood plays. Because they’ve been successful in this recent time, I feel like everyone has a reasonable grasp. I feel like it’s very, very difficult to stop the way that they play. They’re not a team that really changes too much because of personnel. They obviously have a group of guys that some things revolve around, but we’re going to have to compete really hard. We’re ready for whoever plays.”
On James Sicily’s form
“The groins aren’t an issue. He’s working really hard on his game, I thought he played really well last week. The thing about Sis is he’s led us really well. At the moment, his leadership has been really strong through the tougher periods. You look at the last couple of years, and when you really needed players to stand up, he was the guy. I’m really pleased that he’s the captain of the club and he’s doing the things that he’s doing. Has he played perfect footy this year? No, of course not, no one has, but I thought he significantly improved last week. He took a lot of intercept marks and had a lot of intercept possessions. Even in the early part of the game, I think the progress that he made this year, which doesn’t get the accolades on the outside, is that he’s defended really well. He didn’t win a lot of the footy, but he was spoiling well, he defended really well, and then he came into his own offensively after that. He’s become a very reliable player on top of being the superstar that we’ve seen over the last few years. I’m pretty pleased with how Sis is going overall.”
Watch Mitchell’s full press conference below
