Hawthorn Senior Coach Sam Mitchell says his side is well prepared for Thursday night’s blockbuster second-versus-third clash against Fremantle at Optus Stadium. 

Both teams are coming into the game in winning form and Mitchell knows the Hawks need to be at their best to challenge the Dockers. 

Speaking to the media on Tuesday morning, the Hawthorn coach also spoke about the team’s ruck combination and Nick Watson’s form, whilst also providing updates on skipper James Sicily… and physio Andrew Lambart. 

We summarised the key points from his press conference below. 

On James Sicily 

“He'll be fine. He just rolled his ankle. Technically, I will say he has to get through training, but we expect him to play.”

On the Meek and Reeves ruck combination 

“In the pre-season, we looked at how we use the fifth player on the bench. If I had to guess in November, I would have said that probably an extra runner would have been the first choice. We tried that for a period, but I think the second ruck, not to say it works for everyone, not to say we'll do it forever, but it really is working quite well for us. If you think about the possession count of ruckmen in general, I think our rucks are sort of averaging 25 possessions now. When they play individually, it's probably less than 10. So we're creating a different threat for the opposition, which is not just ruck work, it's also around the ground and intensity around the ball and all those details that we probably didn't predict, to be fair. I'm not surprised by Ned's form, because I think we looked at last year and thought ‘Ned's playing really good footy, he just has to wait for opportunity.’ The opportunity came, so he's pretty thankful for that.”

On Nick Watson’s form 

“I think the thing with Nick is he's pretty passionate about his forward craft. I know you guys are all excited all the time about seeing him in the midfield a bit more, and there are lots of small forwards that would love to be midfielders. He loves being a forward. He's been that his whole career and since juniors. I think the thing that he works on is what he's good at. It's not just the goal kicking, and the finishing and the crumbing, but his pressure and his intensity around the ball is very, very difficult to replicate if you don't train it. And I think, to his credit, he's worked really hard on his game in the last sort of nine months. From the end of last season to the start of this season, I think no one's probably made bigger gains physically than he has. Credit to him and the environment around him that he's been able to start to blossom. I don't think we've seen the best of ‘Wizard’ just yet.”

On Fremantle 

“We've had some close games. I think last year we were in front at three-quarter-time, and they ran over us late. They've been a good side for a long time, and only in the last couple of years, we've jumped up the ladder a bit more. They're really well-systematised and have a lot of talent on their list as well. Their coaches are very strong, and their players are good, so it makes sense that they've been at the top for a bit longer than we have been. But we know they're one of, if not the best side in the competition right now and for this season. So we have to beat teams like this, and we'll see if we're ready for it on Thursday night.”

On the health of Hawks physio, Andrew Lambart

“He's okay, he’s taking it in good spirits. He's having surgery tomorrow, I think, on the right one (hamstring). I think the left one is just hanging on. He's going to see if he can get away with not having the surgery on that. I basically said to him, ‘I don't want to see you. Make sure you're just resting up.’ But he has been here every day. He beats everyone to the Club, and he's last to leave, and he won't stop working. He rang me yesterday with medical updates about guys, and I'm like, ‘Man, would you just have a medical update on yourself?’ This will be the first game he's missed for about 20 years.” 

Watch Mitchell's full press conference below