'Honestly, grow up': Sam Mitchell blasts 'keyboard heroes' | Hawks Press Conference | Fox Footy

um I'll I'll actually start if that's right um I love footy and I love our game um and I think the position we have as leaders of the community we need to do the best job we possibly can around discrimination and we've got I don't know if anyone saw the Eddie bits um social media post from yesterday um but we got um some stuff that I don't want to go into it and all that but um I just want to put it out there that if you have have any form of racism in you as a Hawthorn person we're not interested in having you as part of our club um so while we're all enjoying a fantastic win um and we should all be enjoying it unfortunately some parts of our horor family can't enjoy it because of what Heroes on their keyboards think that they're capable of doing and any one of those who ever wears brown and gold we don't want you all right so sorry to start it off on a Melancholy tone but I think it's important that I add to the voices who take a stand against anything to do with racism and vilification look I I don't want I don't want to go into the details of it but you're in the ballp how does it make you feel when when you're reading stuff like this as coach and you've been there as a player as well reading stuff on social media to give you know these people that are doing this stuff bit Contex as to feels on the other what's it like I mean I haven't read it personally I mean I'm not I'm not a social media scroller too much but I think I it's hard as a coach because you see what the players put into their work and you know when you miss a shot on goal or when you you know like the amount of effort that goes into every single thing that these guys do on the field and every team I'm not just talking about hold on here every player that is playing there just leaves so much of their life in a football sense um and for that to be called out because of how they look is just honestly grow up it's absolutely ridiculous do you hesitate at saying anything publicly knowing that it gives these people oxygen 100% I do and I I've spoken to some um before I came in I spoke um that's why I'm a bit um upset I guess but you know I spoke to some people involved and said is this something you want me cuz I only want to help the people who are affected buy it themselves and when when they are affected all I can do is support them in any way that I have the power to do and I get the power of a press conference do you want me to support that or does that make it worse and the comment was I think we need to show as much support as we can so I decided to do that I don't want to overtake the whole press conference but I just thought it was important that I added my voice in in a time when you know I've got people who should be celebrating who are who the cele cting still but there's a you know black dog following them around if you like just a little bit of context was this something that happened today yeah that's an incident from today yeah I don't look I don't I don't want to go I don't want to go into too many no no I think I believe I don't think it was a no it was yes it was a social media yeah yeah and to the game fourth winning five games for the HS um pretty good and uh yeah must pretty impressed you guys dominated that first half kicking 10 of the first 12 goals of the game yeah I thought they had some Er some times in the game when they were right on top of us but they weren't able to to um to hit the scoreboard they missed some opportunities go against our 50 and I was really pleased that we kept the kept the foot down for the majority of the game I think we're showing more and more maturity as a group and and the players are they have a great understanding of what our best looks like produce it and so we're doing that more and more often and it's taken some time to get to this point but we finally at a point now where we should be competitive against every side and that and that you know we talked preseason about we'd like to put oursel in winnable positions more often um and we've been able to do that over the last five games um winning winning four um but you know the best teams they're competitive and in winnable positions in 20 games in a row not not five so we know we've got some work to do still but um certainly a little bit of extra evidence today that now best will hold up yeah the back Line's been a bit of a work in progress I think um obviously we lost blankie in the preseason and he was sort of a a lock in that in that area at the time and I think when we um you know we've been mixing and matching a little bit in the back half and and Carl um has gone back there as well um you know from his more traditional wing for the majority of his career I think his running power um has has rounded out that group nicely I thought CIS was was really good today I thought that Jack scrimshaw um he was last week he uh you know coming back off his suspension he was probably a bit a little bit off and I thought today he was back to his best and the way that the defense um you know they they complement each other pretty well and we were able to keep them you know to two goals in the first half um I think they're working well together you take credit for scen SCS form no I mean I think the thing about the scrim is he was he was one of those players who could have been a waste wasted talent and not to say he's a finished product right now but you know he was so talented and had done things reasonably comfortably for the majority of his career and you know he's played 100 games and he's still playing in the twos last year and so you know the fact he's been willing to put in the work and make some changes to his game and and become the the consistent performer we see now I think when you look at Jack sshw from maybe a couple years ago he either you know he would play well on um you know his stats would be good but maybe defensively not as strong and now he's a well-rounded player he helps the team he helps the team defensively he helps them offensively but he also helps them verbally with you know setup and structure and he values all the things that actually make wins because the things that make wins uh they don't all go on a stat sheet R comes back in today obviously LD had a really good run number one ra comes in has the seven score invol win the clearances in the Midfield keeps rolling on like it has been for the last five weeks what was the message um I guess tetti he is an opportunity you know you I think when you're playing at Box Hill um opportunity or knock at some point for a lot of those players and you need to be ready to take it and his opportunity knocked and he'd been playing okay really but I thought he really took his chance today and I think when you're building a list and you're building a squad you need you need depth in positions and to have two Ruckman can both stand up at AFL level is I think vital you look at every every strong and consistent team in the competition they all have that and so now having Ned and you know we'll see what happens next week with with Miki as well um that now the fact we've got two Ruckman who are both vying for the number one position and we know both of them can get the job done on their day um I think it's it it builds confidence in this squad seems to do a lot of work without the ball obviously doesn't get credit for it and then kcks a goal in the last quarter how nice is it to see yeah nashy I think uh I mean he's a big you know he leads out tackles most weeks and he leads out um you know what you call selfless ax and there was a fantastic piece of vision of him last week chasing loing Neil with three or four minutes to go he's just sprinting across the ground to to shut down you know one of their most damaging players and and Nash is one of those players he's he usually plays better than the stat sheet suggest you know people who didn't watch today probably say oh yeah kind of Nash seven and a goal pretty standard but if you watch the game and you and you recogniz the role that he plays he's in the rock for quite a bit of the game and he's still able to produce running power so he's an important part of the Midfield mix and perhaps he's a little bit less Herald heralded outside our four walls but I think the players value playing with him pretty highly had n individual score goal scorers the last two weeks you must be really happy with the forward line cohesion but probably more importantly delivery inside 50 um I actually thought we're a little bit off in the in the delivery um this week I think I thought I thought their Defenders actually you know I think um BL took five or six inter set marks and um he actually did some things that caused us some trouble I think hinge had you know 30 touches and and caused us some trouble so our Ford line um we're putting up better scores now and we're using we've got a bit more efficiency 60 inside 50s or there abouts today um and so when we're we it's been a work in progress a lot of new you if you look at it's probably five forwards that played down there today if you include Hardwick that weren't there last year and and so their chemistry has been a work in progress and Adrian hickmott you know he's done a great job with it so far and hopefully it'll continue to to build Jeff gunon seven goals in two weeks down 250th today how integrally is here to football club and you know over his journey and and now as as a player after come fromis yeah I mean I think Jack's it's a great story and bit of a fairy tale for him today and I think I still regardless of the goals that he kicks I've been so consistent in saying his biggest value is what he's doing off the field he's just like an extra assistant coach for us he's um help that forward line chemistry that you mentioned he's bu he's continuing to help us build that and to make sure that um you know I think if you look at the forward line today I mean um you know Dylan Moore he kicks five and has has 20 OD I think um Jack ginan had you know five or six shots on goal and had over 20 and that's all from off the back of the learning that they're getting from um you know from Jack Gunston Luke Bruce Adrian hickmott these guys who continue to to work on their craft no I had I had a bit of a I so I I did uh I got warned that um there might be a couple of questions about that but so there's they were really close I sort of called them the Rascal pack like there's this whole little group of players they spend all this time together and they you know they've all got their celebrations and and all those things and basically I think what was happening is they were getting into Guinea because his two best mates are right in front of him and he didn't see them and he had a shot at goal so they're like into him about that and then Daisy's like that's a boy like made up for it and so you know um I think the banter that those guys have that and in a fun way they're having great fun playing footy as young as young men in their early 20s um but by the same token they've started to hold each other to a higher count and so if you look at us as a group I think they're a good snapshot they started off in their careers having fun um and perhaps you know not getting you know not doing everything they should be doing and now when they go outside of what they know that is the best thing for the team they pull each other up and so the coaches don't need to get involved and they're basically running themselves and um I thought the maturity that that younger forward group showed today so um Guinea Mor um Conor McDonald Kel shadir I thought the maturity that they showed today um after a bit of a rough second quarter I thought that um that was a big part of the win and and that goal I'm right on three quter time I thought was vital to it and Daisy recognized that moment and was sure to pass it on CJ report concern yeah I don't want to I I deliberately don't look at anything to do with the m or or get involved in it before these because I'm not going to add anything to it but he's an really important player for us it's you know he's just come back from you know long injury and he's you know we we tried to get him off as soon as we thought it was safe to do so in the game we know that we got to continue to to manage his minutes and those things he's an important player and we'll see what happens during the week you beat Brisbane last week you come up against another top side in one probably start favorites just the importance of continuing what you've been generating season uh yeah I'm not sure if we'll start fav I think the vision that I've seen of JW which is not extensive at this point but I mean they I think their best is as good as anyone in the competition they're um you in the early part of this year in particular their offense defense was just Unstoppable really and they've got some of the best players in the competition in every line you know whether it's Hogan green Kelly um you know Whitfield Taylor you can you can reel off the the best five of their teams as good as any ones and I think um you know haven't seen too much of them in you know probably this little period as we prepare for them but I think the challenge for us is we know that at our best we can compete and as Sydney showed us a few weeks ago when we just drop a little bit our pressure is not quite as good that um you know we're going to get a touch on it's probably one of the most unpredictable Seasons we've had in a long long time um you know you guys a top four te who knows we top four team um H look got as boring uh this will definitely come up on all those funny shows but it's the last thing I'm thinking about is anything ahead of um gws so just so you get the Cote it's definitely a one week at the time part of the season for us take one more you spent the last quarter on the bench last week as well you think that was important moment no I I went up to the uh I went up to the box at the start of the quarter just to say I thought Adela might um you know try a couple things and um they certainly did but we we felt like we handled them not too bad so um really I knew Jack was on the bench um so I just wanted to go down and tell him to enjoy the last 10 minutes and um you know he was able to do that and I thought him him kicking that last goal there was a bit of something poetic about it and I think we love the theater of the game and Jack gunson kicking the last goal of the game in his 250th after the story that he's had and his family here and the 2014 reunion being on I think there was and there was something special about it that we as a football club should be proud of thanks