Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell addressed the media after his side’s 22-point victory over the Western Bulldogs on Thursday night.
Mitchell spoke on increasing the pressure being a key focus for the group ahead of the clash at Marvel Stadium, as well as Sam Butler’s gutsy return and the cross-code mentor who joined him in the coaches box.
We summarised the key points from his press conference below.
On his side's pressure and physicality
“It was a clear focus for us coming into the game, to create a game that would enable that so part of it is player attitude, but part of it is the way we set up the game as well. So when you work together on those things and you prioritise them top of the list, you get that performance, which is going to give you much better to chances to beat good teams, which the Bulldogs are. I think that will be the first question of the review. If the opposition coach said we were too physical, that's a pretty good blueprint to win most games. That's certainly what we will be attempting to do from this point on.”
On his side's recent form
“If we hadn’t of won and got run over at the end for instance, I still would’ve thought of this game as closer to the way we want to play, I think we could’ve walked away from tonight, proud of what we put out there and sometimes you don’t win the game you play in the right manner. Even if we had of lost the game, I think we showed tonight what our best can look like, and there was parts of our game that were going to be really hard to combat and can we do it consistently enough, that’s the challenge for us. We probably weren’t as potent as we would’ve liked, I think we had close to 60 inside 50s but could only but 81 points on the board, but I when you’re keeping the highest scoring team in the competition to under 10 goals, that’s something to hang your hat on.”
On Sam Butler’s return to AFL football
“Butsy is a great story, he is a great young lad who works enormously hard. He has probably had some doubts over this period. When you come back from a broken leg, if you've experienced it personally or had someone close to you who has, it's not a smooth process like a knee reconstruction, where you come back and there is a step-by-step process, a broken leg is a different beast. Some of the knocks and setbacks that he has had is an enormous resilience builder for him. I was so proud of him to play AFL footy at all, let alone to perform in AFL footy, I thought he was really good tonight. That was at the top range of what we thought he might be capable of; he has a great engine, great work rate, he’s a great tackler, he has played three games as a midfielder in five years, so to get that performance out of him was better than we thought. I was absolutely rapt for him, and it's a story that we should celebrate."
On Jarman Impey’s move forward
“Jarsy is a really great, important player for us, he’s a real energy giver and I thought once Worps looked like he needed to get out of the game, we had to figure out what to do with the sub so getting Changuoth into the game, we were pretty excited about to be fair, it was a game that looked like it would suit him. So getting him in and figuring out, we’ve got to more someone forward, we thought a bit of small, a bit of smarts and a bit of speed would really help us. So Jarsy hasn’t done that for quite a while, but I thought he really gave us something, not just his running power and his aerial presence which he’s a great mark for his size but I think his smarts and his vibrancy really created something in the front half. He kicked one and created probably another two just with a bit of experience in the front half.”
On North Queensland Cowboys Coach Todd Payten in the coaches box
"The boys were making a bit of a joke that I had him just to make sure they tackled well, because if not they might get tackled by him. But no, Todd and I have struck up a bit of a relationship together, I spent a bit of time in the pre-season with them and went and looked in their coaches box in a practice match against Melbourne Storm down in Casey. I shadowed him for a day and just learned about how they go about things, what you can learn things from other codes. They've got the Storm tomorrow night, so I had him along, he was part of the preparation for the game. I'm looking forward to chatting to him about what he learned, but more importantly for me, what he thinks we can improve on and how we can do things better. He has a fairly different demeanour to what I have, so learning from him is something I have taken a lot of growth from my coaching from Todd. I'm looking forward to hearing what he thought about tonight."
On James Worpel being subbed out
"It was one of those things you wouldn't have seen unless you knew what happened. In the first four or five minutes of the game he got a corkie. He tried so hard he actually was enormous for what he did for two and a half quarters, but after half-time he couldn't get warmed up, he couldn't get going. To even stay out there for that long he did an amazing job, so when you go and watch it back, the behind the goal stuff he was trying not to limb, but he battled away all night and did a great job for us. It got the better of him halfway through the forward."
Watch Sam Mitchell's full press conference below.
