Hawthorn Senior Coach Sam Mitchell has rallied the Hawks faithful to fill the MCG with brown and gold on Thursday night as his side prepares to face Carlton in the club’s first game at the home of football since Round 12.
Speaking to the media on Wednesday morning, Mitchell also provided an update on Finn Maginness and Mabior Chol as well as welcoming Will Day back into the side for Round 20.
We summarised the key points from his press conference below.
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On Finn Maginness
“It’s a bit of a scary one for him and his family. He obviously came up after the game with a bit of soreness. At the time it would’ve been easy to say we’ll send him home to Melbourne and work it out but I think our medical team have done a great job of making sure that he stayed. We got lucky that Scott and Anna (his parents) were there and Anna has been by his side this whole time. He’s still a bit worse for wear, he’s still down there. Rob McCartney, our Head of Football, went down there for a few days and we had our PDM (Player Development Manager) down there as well. He’s feeling supported but feeling pretty ordinary so unfortunately, that means his season’s going to be over from an on-field sense but that’s probably in the back of our minds at the moment. What’s at the front is making sure he gets back to full health and gets back to Melbourne as soon as possible.”
On Mabior Chol
“With Marbs, if it was the last game of the season, he could be playing but he was always going to be up against it after that so we’re probably leaning towards not playing him and giving him another week. Not 100 per cent confirmed but I suspect it’ll be another one.”
On Will Day's return
“It's interesting, when you're injured, there's different ways to go about it. Sometimes you step away and you don't hear from them that much but Daysy's the opposite, he's been part of our coaching, coaching on the bench, showed great leadership tendencies throughout his injury and he's been really a part of the group. The fact that he's actually going to step over the white line and be part of the team on the field is pretty exciting for everyone.”
On Thursday night’s game
“I ran into a couple of Hawks fans yesterday and they were just so excited to go to the game in their brown and gold. It’s the first time we’ve been there (MCG) since Round 12, it’s Round 20 now so we really want to try and fill the stadium with brown and gold. Our Hawks fans have always been enormous at coming out. Whatever the expected crowd is, we usually tip over that so I expect the brown and gold to be out, it’s going to be a good night for footy.”
Watch Mitchell’s full press conference below.
