Hawthorn Senior Coach Sam Mitchell has credited the side’s depth as it prepares to do battle with Collingwood under Thursday night lights at the MCG. 

The Hawks have blooded two league debutants and one club debutant in 2026, with each player coming into the AFL team and playing their role at the elite level. 

Even with five changes made to last week’s team, the Hawks still prevailed by 49 points against Gold Coast at UTAS Stadium, guiding the brown and gold to their sixth straight win and 11th consecutive victory in Launceston. 

Speaking to the media on Tuesday morning, Mitchell also spoke about the role Box Hill has had to play in the AFL side’s strength, highlighting the Club's 500th match at the Kennedy Community Centre on Friday night as one to watch, as well as Thursday night's blockbuster. 

We summarised the key points from his press conference below.

On Thursday night’s game

“Every game's worth four points, and obviously, this one is going to have a bit of talk about it, and there's going to be a lot of people there. We’re looking forward to the opportunity. It's great to be able to play on a Thursday night in front of a big crowd, and I think it's a great way to start the weekend for us.”

On Collingwood 

“We saw an early part of the game on the bus getting to the airport, and the scoreboard was reasonably close. Then by the time we landed home from Tassie, obviously, it had blown out a fair bit, so they've put some pretty good footy together. They obviously found a way to score, so we've scouted a bit more the last couple of days and kicking 15 goals in a half is pretty good footy. We know Collingwood at their best are a very, very potent side, and we've got a couple of things that we hope can curtail it.”

On the depth of the squad 

“I guess a lot of credit goes to two groups. One is the coaches and the staff. But the other one is for the players themselves. I think whether it's Gia (Daniel Giansiracusa) who's managing sort of the development programs of everyone or Dave Mirra who's coaching Box Hill, they play with a very similar system. All the players are just willing to commit to the way that we want to play and play to their strengths. I mean, everyone comes in, and they bring a slightly different skill set to the guys they've replaced. So we try to make sure that every role is sort of made for the player that plays it. I'm really pleased with the development program at the moment. We have a lot of guys who are capable of playing, and Box Hill is in pretty good form. I’m really excited for their game on Friday night, the 500th game for Box Hill. That'll be a really good turnout as well. I’m looking forward to that because you see a lot of guys who are AFL capable in our VFL side, and I think that's what every AFL head coach wants - to have depth to choose from, and we certainly have someone in every position that we're confident we can pick.”

On the improvements he’s seen in the side this year 

“I think one of the areas that we needed to work on was around managing momentum, and with that comes a little bit of maturity. I think when I looked at our game last week, it felt like a bit more of a mature performance. It wasn't just run and gun at all costs, and it wasn't slow it down at all costs. We sort of picked and chose how to defend, how to attack in different moments of the game, and we felt like that gave us a better opportunity to control momentum. We didn't get it all right, we gave away some easy goals at different stages. But the thinking behind it, I felt, was a much more mature version of what we want to be, and if you look at premiership sides historically, there's a level of maturity across their team. Hopefully, we play with a young, vibrant energy that people want to come and see, and they're still going to do their celebrations, but underlying it is a level of maturity that is needed for big games.”

Watch Mitchell's full press conference below