Hawthorn Senior Coach Sam Mitchell hopes his side can back up last week’s strong performance when it meets the GWS GIANTS at the MCG this Friday night. 

The Hawks know they must be at their best to beat the top sides, and are determined to rectify their Opening Round loss against the GIANTS at ENGIE Stadium. 

Speaking to the media on Wednesday morning, Mitchell also addressed Jack Gunston and Conor Nash’s injuries, with both players ruled out of the Round 16 clash. 

We summarised the key points from his press conference below. 

On the team’s form 

“Our best has been pretty good. We've been quite potent. We lost the Bulldogs game just before the bye, but I thought there was a 50-minute period of that game that was probably our best footy of the season, or close to. Then on the weekend, there's a part of me that looked at the weekend's game against Gold Coast and said, ‘Great, we won up there for the first time for over a decade. We played some good footy.’ But there's a part of me that said, ‘Well, we kicked five goals from centre bounce, and we lost the expected score.’ So I don't think we're a complete product either. We're in the process of having to make sure our best is on show often enough to make sure we can win the games we need to, and against the GIANTS, who taught us a bit of a lesson in Opening Round, that's a big test this week.”

On the last time we played the GIANTS 

“Opening Rounds are a difficult one. The first game of any season, you get that unknown of having not played for quite a while at that level, and I think we weren't ready for the GIANTS on that day. We did get what we deserved. We didn't deserve to win that game. It feels like a long time ago now. I think both sides have been through some ups and downs through that period, and we need to make sure our best foot is forward. Is it about righting that wrong? Partially, but also we need to continue to win to be where we want to be later in the year.”

On Jack Gunston’s injury

“It's been a frustrating injury. He hurt it (foot) originally, then he was able to play, and then it just didn't bounce out of that well. He's been close to playing all of the weeks that he's been unavailable. So we've had to take a step back and say, okay, let's give it a bit of time. Let's give it a little bit of different management. We ruled him out pretty early from this game, thinking that a little bit of extra rest might get him right for next week.”

On Conor Nash’s injury

“It's frustrating because he looks fine, but he's just got some management of that sort of neck issue, which has caused some issues in other parts of his body. It's not something we've seen a lot, to be honest. There's no exact timeline for him, which is frustrating, but it is something that other sports deal with reasonably regularly, and with a lot of confidence. While it's frustrating for us because it's unusual, we're confident that he'll get back pretty soon. Once he does get back, then the chance of recurrence is very low. We’re looking forward to getting him back.”

Watch Mitchell’s full press conference below