Sam Mitchell is expecting a high-quality and high-intensity Elimination Final clash with GWS on Saturday afternoon at ENGIE Stadium. 

Speaking to the media on Thursday morning as he prepares to lead the Hawks to their second straight finals series, Mitchell provided an insight into the increased intensity and pressure of finals footy. 

The Hawthorn coach also spoke about Josh Weddle and Harry Morrison’s availabilities, with the club’s final team to be announced on Thursday evening. 

We summarised the key points from Mitchell’s press conference below. 

On Josh Weddle’s availability

“He’ll get through training today, and if all goes well, then he’ll be available for selection. I’ll say the same things a few times this press conference, 6.20pm, you’ll find out the team. I’m really pleased with the medical staff. They gave him as much rest as they could, knowing that if it went right, he could get a run at it and give him a go to get back into the finals campaign. I think he’s done the work, and the medical team have done a really good job of giving him availability.”

On playing finals

“I think finals footy is what everyone loves. You know, the sun ironically comes out right at this moment, and it’s September, there’s spring in the air, and there’s this feeling about the game now and about where we are that there’s a level of what matters. Every contest matters, every game matters, every quarter, so the balance of that means that you play at a level where you’re not leaving anything out there because one team’s season’s over. There’s a level of physicality that’s going to be there with two pressure teams. They’re just as high for pressure as we are. The last four games we’ve played have been really close, so it’s going to be about who can withstand it for the longest period and who can stand up when it matters.”

On Harry Morrison’s availability 

“He’s been a little bit slower than we would’ve liked. He’s probably more unlikely. I can’t probably see him getting up. He’ll hit a couple of drills today, but he’s missed a fair bit of footy now, so whether he’s good enough to get up for some game time for Box Hill or he’ll have to wait another week. He’s probably a little bit slower than what we would’ve liked.”

On the lessons learned from last year’s finals series 

“There’s still some unknowns. You’d like to think that we’re a bit more confident because we’ve been here before. I think you come out of last year’s finals campaign and say, well, we love that and we want more of it, so there’s a bit of a spurring motivation to get back to this moment again. So now that we’re there, there’s a little bit of confidence that we’ve been there before. Last year, it was a big unknown. Is it going to be completely different? Is it going to be similar? How are we going to handle this? So there’s a little bit of confidence, but every finals campaign is different. I think if you watch five minutes of any final over the last decade or longer, there’s a few minutes where the players are overawed by it all and no-one’s playing at their best but then in general, things settle and it gets back to its norm so hopefully we can jump out early but the consistency of 120 minutes will be where the game’s won, I imagine.”

Watch Mitchell’s full press conference below