Sam Mitchell gets grilled ahead of round 24

just before we start I just want to throw my um support to the lansburg family I think sometimes things happen in our industry that's bigger than the game and reading the story um with my own family today I felt um like it was not something I should pass up the opportunity to send my support and love to to his you know I didn't know him personally particularly well but to colleagues worked with him people he's done um work within our industry people he's supported in that time but also obviously his family I think um is well respected and um an enormously important part of what we do as an organization and as a full industry I think um it's important we support each other in these times and just thought it'd be worth worth starting with that oh I mean there's a lot of stories in sport isn't there I think um even for Liam Shields you know for him to play final game um for the two teams you played for there's a bit of beauty to that um and the and the theater of the game you know the stories that you guys all love writing about um and we love that it bring a few extra fans to the game and eyes to the TV but I mean for us it's been saying it for it feels like a long time now but every week's a final isn't it so this is as good as an elimination final for the game game we have we don't want to put our um season in anyone else's hands so um the final scoreboard will be the thing that matters for us and we know that if we win we'll play finals footy so the incentive is there to have a good performance um the peripheral stuff we'll we'll leave it just there on the periphery does it surprise you how quickly this has all turned around not only just three years but from zip 5 six um I mean I think we've been really clear with the Strategic plan that we've had for you know quite a long period of time trying to build build a list build a playing group build a culture that would sustain us through successful times and that would create a game style that would you know bring success for when when our time for finals footy came and so we've been building towards it um I think I've been quoted before saying there was no speed limit on how quickly that would be the the role of all of us as the support for the players is to is to put us in an environment where we can go as quickly as possible um now we're getting close but we're far from a finished product uh I mean I think every game there's some learning you know I think the standards that we hold ourselves to have continued to grow and improve and I think you look at the very best sides and how what they accept and what they don't there's a big difference from that to sides who are building and growing and their players haven't played together as much so I think we looked at the early part of last week and think a lot went right for us obviously particularly when we kicked some goals pretty quickly through the latter part of the first quarter but then we looked at the second quarter which we get out scored uh and we go away from it and it's a great lesson for us that our best is pretty potent kick nine goals in a quarter but U we lose the next quarter by two goals so our best is very good but our when we're not on and when we're not predictable enough and we're not putting enough pressure on the opposition that we're going to fall down pretty quickly we have CJ and Jack scri available this weekend no CJ won't be um so he's he's sort of just he can run sort of 75% and he can get but as soon as he gets a little bit High a little bit um little bit quicker than that I mean he's he's 80% is sort of everyone else's 100 um but having him not being able to quite feel good enough at that speed means that the risk is not is not worth taking for him um scrim scrim we're not sure today we'll see how he goes he's got um he obviously had a he had to have a clean out so he's got like a nasty cut if you like so he'll wear some bandaging I think he might wear a glove for a part of session and and see how it feels functionally if he functionally can use it then he'll be available for selection does it make a hard qualify CJ um I haven't thought about selection Beyond this week so um we need to win this game otherwise selection at that point won't matter so um good try where you thought he was tracking or oh I mean if I'm really I'm really honest about it I thought at the start that we were being super conservative not playing him in the first game um so the first game that he missed it was more of a discussion hey like you're a bit tigh of training you could train but it was a bit tight um and it was really a lall call around whether he played or not and we decided to go the ultra conservative option and say look I don't think it's worth it because if you do hurt yourself um obviously the the year's getting late um so we were very conservative and then I I suspected that by Monday he would have been fine um but he wasn't so it ended up being a bit of a lucky call or a good call on that first occasion and and now what we're hoping is that after this week he'll be available yeah I mean he's unavailable this week and there's no guarantees after that there's no surgical interv interventions needed so he doesn't need anything except for to feel good enough to play um so how long that takes is up to um his body and his healing powers and um you know he'll be he'll be doing everything he can to make sure he's available as soon as possible but it's a sore at the moment it's just pain and soreness that's hurting him he can actually move it okay um but it's just very very um tender and sort of the touch or any movement so as soon as he gets that back he'll be available a little bit broader one what do you feel been some of the critical decisions moments games your time in charge that's got you to this point uh that's this is a really boring answer but I think consistency of decision- making has been important I think you know big on strategy so making sure strategically we were all heading as a whole organization heading in the same direction so whether that was the way the list was being built whether that was the way we staffed the list whether that was the way we developed the list whether that was the way we picked the the selection um for each game I think the consistency of all of those things going through the same filter every single decision has gone through the Strategic is this the right decision not just for this weekend but for our strategy um and so by being so consistent in in everything being building towards the same thing I think that's what's led to the you know accelerated performance I don't think it's any oh we did this one thing and that was the key it was more the consistency of decision- making from from everyone and we've been really transparent even you guys know exactly what our strategy was um so the because of its transparency and its ease of of implementation I think everyone from you know whether that's board or Administration or coaches or football Department staff or players themselves everyone understood what we were trying to achieve and that makes the decision- making easier and I think those consistent decisions have given us success so far the big part of that was embracing you stripping back a bit and embracing you yeah well I mean we looked we all looked at our list profile a couple years ago and said all right this is not you know we got need to get the right players in probably need to hit the draft a little bit more we need to invest key key positions to key players for the future and and that was part of the strategy and so part of it was it's not just about getting games it's getting games in positions that they're likely to play so that that's been a one of the consistent decisions which has helped us did you expect C absolutely not no absolutely not um I I mentioned this week that I think when we assess players you assess a key forward and you know we'll all go to the draft combine and we'll look at speed athletic profile jump um but probably the thing that is very very hard to measure and they can't capture at a combine is is competitiveness um ability to learn and Implement quickly um and Coach ability I don't mean it from a coach necessarily but from his teammates where to go those things I think his his level of improvement has been so significant because of how raw he was he was so open-minded to be willing to learn and he tries hard which sounds so basic but he just tries really hard every time the ball hits the ground he chases it and that you know there's a lot of Highly talented younger players that that don't have that naturally so they have to work on it and that takes time and and fortunately for him he might not have the most beautiful kicking action um but he does naturally try to put pressure on and that and that means his worst games he still performs a pretty good team role we asked question inms the what been able that back a his second half of this season has been quite underrated I think I think within our four walls we've been wrapped with Carl's um influence the thing about Kyle is he's quite a deep thinker about the game he has a great understanding he'll come to me not not weekly but probably monthly with an idea about the way something we could do an something we could Implement an idea that he has that might help us and usually they spot on um and so he's been really able to drive his own role we he knows what his strengths are and he knows that what we're trying to do as a coaching group is get him to play in a way where we can maximize the things he can do so how he runs how he kicks the ball how he communicates with his teammates there is three outstanding strengths and whatever role we can give him to help him do those things consistently but he's driven a lot of it himself so I think glad someone finally asked me a question cuz he's been very very good like to see the Australian Australian team next next week includ uh my preference with the Australian team is that it's played it's they just pick the best place for the positions not not the Midfield you know so there two Wing should be um I hope so I mean it would be a great story if if he was I'm sure you guys would love that I would assume that Errol golden has One Wing um and then if I had to guess they'll put a midfielder out on the other Wing despite him probably never played on the wing for the majority of the season but if they choose two genuine wingmen then he certainly deserves to be in the conversation Sam how critical guys like Jack Gunston L Bru behind the scenes James siis as Captain we talk about the youth big those guys yeah I mean I think a big part of what we've grown how we've grown this season and people talk about you know how quickly it's come along and are you surprised I think the thing that's changed the most is the Players ownership and buying for their own development and each others and so the standard that they hold each other to has just grown enormously I think we saw Dylan Moore's interview after the goal Coast game where he said it was about bringing a mouth guard to training and um getting the players to drive their own standards I think the coaches have had much less to do since then and it's very much been player driven and so when you get that you're much more likely um you know to improve I think when it's your mate saying hey you can be better it's very different to when your coach says it um and it's much more regular because they spend more time together so I think that the coaching of our group and it started from you know gunson and Bruce and and Sicily and these guys and Dylan Moore but it's also grown to now be across across most of the time right there was there a particular game particular moment where you noticed that shift that it wasn't just a young team going out going um again I don't I look back across this season and it's there's so many key moments but none of them stand out as in that was the moment that everything turned I didn't have a moment like that maybe the players would say something different or some of the staff might say something different but it's been a work in progress for a long period and it's not even just this year I think we made some steps last year we made some steps year before and it's all been you know gets to a Tipping Point when finally it it all clicks for you and it doesn't stay like that forever I wish it did um but trying to stay in form trying to keep momentum going all those things are one of the great battles of sport and that's why we love sport in itself because there's such an unknown about it and so as much as we're trying to keep momentum we know that being too focused on the big picture can take away your focus from what's right in front of you and we've seen so many I don't know how everyone's tipping is going but I tip it's probably not going particularly well because there are games every week that are surprises and we need to make sure that we're so consistent and diligent in what's right in front of us and we've been pretty good at that um and this week will be another challenge where we need to beat the team that's right in front of us and that'll be North e