Hawthorn Coach Sam Mitchell has urged the brown and gold faithful to get to the MCG and cheer on the Hawks for the Club’s first home game of the year on Thursday night. 

Mitchell also spoke about what is set to be a compelling match-up against Sydney, how Jack Gunston continues to improve his form and how players are developing their footy IQ live on a game-day. 

We summarised the key points from his press conference below. 

On Sydney 

“They're a big challenge, they’re on top of the ladder. I don't think we read too much into injury. We only have to look back a couple of weeks to the GWS game, and a little bit similar, with perhaps a couple of their best players not playing, and us learning a bit of a lesson. So Sydney is a very good side, playing really good footy, Coxy’s (Dean Cox) got them playing very in sync with each other and a very good system, and we're going to have to play our best footy, but we're excited. It’s our first home game, the first time the Hawks fans can don the brown and gold at the MCG for the season and get in on a membership, so very excited to get a big crowd out and put them away.” 

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On Jack Gunston’s form

“I think he's really matured in his last few years. He's grown enormously as a player, which we've all seen, but he's also grown in an understanding of the game point of view. He's very coach-like in his thinking about the game. And what that has done is it's helped the team, but it's actually helped him. I think it's been accidental in a way. You know, a big part of him coming back to Hawthorn after his time at Brisbane was not about what he did on-field, it was about how he could help everyone else. And I think he's looking at football through that lens of ‘How can I help all these other players improve?’ I think that has helped his own game. And now he's found a role for himself, and he and Adrian Hickmott have worked pretty hard on creating a forward structure that suits the personnel that we have. I think he's going about it in exactly the right way, and he's pretty happy with Garry Lyon thinking he'll kick 100, so he's talking to everyone about that at the moment.”

On how players develop their knowledge and leadership skills on game day 

“There are guys out there like Karl Amon, Jai Newcombe or James Sicily. You're chatting to them about ‘What are you seeing in the game? What does it feel like? What are the opposition trying to do?’ And some players have a really good knack. No one knows every time, except for maybe Scott Pendlebury. But for most players, they get a feeling, ‘Okay, I think the opposition is trying to do this, have we tried that, or would you consider this? There's a handful of players who you sort of lean on as a coach to say, ‘What do you think we could do in this game that might improve our chances or improve an aspect?" And Jack Ginnivan is one of the players who I would lean on to say, you know, ‘What are you seeing out there?’ And he regularly has an insight that we'll use in-game.”

Watch Mitchell’s full press conference below