ON THE verge of his third season steering Hawthorn, coach Sam Mitchell has the same question about his side as those outside the club.
“As a club we knew we had to make some changes and those first two years have really been about building a foundation that we can rely on and that will be strong and will stand the test of time. Now it’s about being able to build on top of that,” he told AFL.com.au last week.
“The foundation is there but how quickly can we build upon that foundation to take the next step in our journey?”
Clues to the question came in many forms last year: strong wins over eventual Grand Finalists Collingwood and Brisbane, Will Day’s breakout and best-and-fairest winning season, a new-look youthful midfield, a string of exciting debuts and a style that saw buy-in and growth.
After eight wins in 2022 and seven last year, Mitchell is aware the hopes will lift again for further growth in 2024. But the Hawks haven’t sat down to discuss their expectations on returning to the finals for the first time since 2018.
“We need to put ourselves in a position this year where we’re closer in games, where we can give ourselves chances to win. Too many games last year we had periods of games where we were blown away and we weren’t even – scoreboard wise – in the ballpark of the opposition,” he said.
“I’m quite big with the players that I’m not going to set any limits on what we can achieve. I don’t know what the ceiling is, I know we’re still a very young group.
“We’ll go into the season one of the youngest teams in the competition and we know that will bring some ups and downs and our challenge continues to be when we have the ups how long can we maximise them for and when we have the downs can we make sure they are finishing quickly. Last year too often it was a bad five minutes that led to a bad quarter that led to a bad half.”
Mitchell’s time off from the club begun with a trip to Tottenham Hotspur, where he and assistant coach Adrian Hickmott spent a week at the English Premier League club.
He said he had “stolen” a couple of things from Spurs, and former Australian manager Ange Postecogolou about organising meetings, timing schedules and structures of the football department while in the UK, with some of Hawthorn’s work mirrored on a larger scale.
He returned for the start of the Hawks’ pre-season before a family trip to America saw him hospitalised with a severe bout of illness over Christmas in New York. The serious health concern saw him spend a week in a hospital bed with pneumonia before he was cleared to fly home to Australia in early January, missing the start of Hawthorn’s training for the new year.
Upon returning, he eased back into the program, crediting the football department for a smooth return.
“I had a rough week and certainly on the road to recovery for a week or two after that but I’ve been fine for a long time now,” he said.
“The first couple of weeks was a little bit quieter, I didn’t come in every day, I didn’t go all day and all session, but I’ve been involved in the program to have enough of my fingerprints on it. The senior coach is obviously an important aspect but there’s a lot of staff who help you run a program and I thought they did a great job. The players were in great shape and condition when I got back and onward and upward from there.”
Hawthorn has embarked on an aggressive rebuild under Mitchell as other clubs have chosen to avoid the longer-term build, with the Hawks discarding senior players to rival clubs for improved draft hands and opportunities within the team for youngsters. If the first two years was phase one with finishes of 13th and then 16th last season, then phase two starts this year, with Mitchell committed to seeing the continued growth.
“I’ve been really confident that we’re on the right path. There’s been some bumps in the road and sometimes you have to remind yourself that we knew this was coming. When you’re in that bump they can feel like ‘Oh wow, this is a bit rockier than we thought’ and the early part of last year was a good example of that. But at no point have we not been confident that we’re on the right track,” he said.
“I look at the development of our younger players as an example. You watch them and how quickly they’re coming along and how quickly they’re becoming significant players themselves, and that gives me great optimism. But then I look at players who have been around a long time like James Sicily and Luke Breust who have been around over a long period of time who are continuing to get the best out of themselves. You’re trying to mesh it all together to be something that will give you that competitive advantage long-term.”
