Hawks’ board must be patient with Mitchell

HAWTHORN coach Sam Mitchell has a healthy, admirable sense of confidence. He always has.

That belief in his ability shone through across his brilliant 329 games and four premierships as a player; which other AFL player would dare to kick on their opposite foot from a set shot 45 metres out directly in front? Mitchell did.

It has not diminished as a coach.

Mitchell was thrust into the Hawthorn top job prematurely. This season was supposed to be his first at the helm but after Alastair Clarkson’s messy exit was fast-tracked in 2021 under the influence of now-former president Jeff Kennett, Mitchell stepped up.

That confidence hasn’t deserted when he took up his seat behind the glass in the coach’s box, he’s been nothing but impressive.

Mitchell’s Hawks won three of the first five including an away-from-home smashing of last year’s prelim finalists port Adelaide in round two and a victory against the premiers Geelong in round five.

The Mitchell game plan is fast and attacking, they moved the ball from defence with dare and speed.

Due to a void of talent in the midfield, largely due to Clarkson’s past sins of not having belief in the draft and trading away key picks, Mitchell was forced to throw the magnets around at centre bounces.

Brownlow Medallist Tom Mitchell was forced to half-forward while the youthful legs of Josh Ward, Jai Newcombe, Will Day, and Conor Nash made the most of the extra midfielder responsibility.

Like Clarkson previously, the new Hawthorn coach showed he was beholden to reputations or afraid of making a hard call.

This was solidified during the end-of-season list changes.

Tom Mitchell, Jaeger O’Meara, Jack Gunston, Liam Shiels and Ben McEvoy all gone. Coach Mitchell, explained the strategy with surety and his typical confidence.

“What that means is we have now got, what I would say, is a great core of premiership players right in front of us,” he said.

“Rather than going into the next draft and the next trade thinking we need to find premiership players, now I think the vast majority of our premiership players are sitting right here and all we need to do is look for little bits and pieces to add to this group.”

After a bitter and nasty campaign, Andy Gowers was named the new president of the Hawks in mid-December, and the fallout to this appointment was swift with former captain Richie Vandenberg quitting on the back of the election result.

Vandenberg and Kennett were massive Mitchell supporters and were instrumental in the sacking of Clarkson.

Now they are gone.

Hawthorn hasn’t played finals since 2018, and is 12 months into an extensive rebuild but Mitchell already sees most pieces of the next Hawthorn premiership puzzle in their proper place.

Despite his optimism, he would know the next three seasons will be tough, there will be many more losses than wins.

With his fierce allies Vandenberg and Kennett gone and a new president and board in place, he’s going to have to hope the new board has as much confidence in him as he has in himself.

Rebuilding coaches rarely survive longer than five years, I personally hope Hawthorn has a lot more patience than that with Mitchell.

– BY KANE CORNES/ SEN