Sam Mitchell reflecting the season that was ahead of finals berth | Press Conference

I guess the last really happy with the professionalism games but just profession yeah I mean I think we had a pretty tough run of games before that as far as the ladder goes a lot of um some travels and um and then to come up today against the side who you know on paper should should be it could be a different challenge for for a young group and I thought I was I thought the players were um really good at being diligent and it was a bit of an arm wrestle early and we're just able to slowly get out get ahead and it wasn't all in our own terms but um you know credit to the players they they handled the the challenge W of think at the conf aprof and we'll take every challenge with that the fun yeah it's a great uh I mean I think it's taken so um so many people being so consistent for so long to get to this point so um we see the players joy and um the way they the way they play together and support each other I thought the selflessness today you know there's a handall to other players in the goal square or squaring up to players for better shots on goal I think those things are the manifestations of the nature of the way that they go about it and that's just the players I think if you look at um whether it's the the support staff the coaches the people around that have created the environment for them to thrive I think you know even if you look at our fans you know I've been wrapped even at the start of the year we were zi and five but whenever we had a home game I always felt like the fans were there and they were on the journey with us and they were supportive and they knew what we were doing and they and so we always felt like we had um the backing of you know a pretty big membership base and I think when all of that started to turn the the feeling of um of belief started to grow really quickly much quicker than it would have otherwise and I think the players have have really thrived off that and um now you're seeing it on the field and and we get a couple of days now probably to reflect Look Backwards um which is pretty rare in season I've never been a fan of the uh the buy before the finals but I understand it now um because having a couple of days to look backwards and appreciate the journey that we've had so far um will actually be quite will be quite good and then and then being able to look forward about the next challenge and the challenge only gets gets bigger we'll work out tomorrow afternoon who we play and where and when and start to plan for that but for the next 24 hours we get to reflect and look backwards and and be pretty pretty proud of what we've achieved as a as a club to get to this point at this at this stage felt was for me game the had aame there maybe we we best teams just um I mean I think I think there's never been one moment there it sounds this sounds funny thing to say but when we were zipping five I didn't think you know some of those games you know I then we gave we gave away a five or six goal start to Collingwood and we nearly ran them down so we' played some good footy we played against jalong and we were within a kick in the third quarter um so even though we were zipping five we weren't it didn't feel like we were that far away as far away as if you had have said that we were going to be here now ready to play finals footy that would have been perhaps a stretch um but I think when you get belief in a group and you're so consistent with how you go about things I think the the players deserve an enormous amount of credit for for what they've put out on the field and so consistently um but the the consistency of the support of the staff like right now out on the overall we've got two of our fitness staff running pretty hard with the emergencies to make sure they're going to be ready so it's out it's raining out there and they're out there working hard as as I walked over to the press conference so I look at that and I think well we're in a position where everyone is on the same page working towards the same thing and Tom will tell how far that'll take us I guess I mean I don't I'm not sure I don't think there was the the buy um back when I was back when I was playing and I haven't been here before obviously as a coach so um it's a bit of an unknown and that's exciting in itself I'm I'm excited for what the next three or four days looks like and trying to work out what the plan is and then um going about trying to execute that plan and make sure we're well prepared for whoever we play um so it'll be a short time of reflection and then really diligent planning to make sure that we're as as well prepared as we possibly can be to to give September everything we have going I guess almost play week probably games that almost make you just R ready for yeah I mean I I don't know I think I think the story will be told afterwards you know if we if we don't play well they'll say oh yeah well they'd already played finals for five or six weeks and if we do play well I'll say yeah g they were well prepared by so no one has an answer now which means there isn't really one um we've played we've played some really tough games of footy we we've known for six weeks probably that we could maybe afford to lose one game and did lose that one game and some other results went our way which puts us in a position where we were in control of our own destiny in the last couple of games which which we've taken care of and now now we get that chance so um I think the consistency of the playing group has been really strong I think we've played pretty consistent footy over the last couple of months but one bad quarter finishes our season and it'll be the same for unless they obviously for the first week a couple of teams will have the the second chance but um we're going to have to we're going to have to be consistent for another four games if we want to get all the way there but um winning winning finals is tough to do and we've given oursel a chance which is all you can ask for like you say Z would have been F to be here today but um how how often got to change is sort of you're stealing for this group and like you say you know youn four games you go all the way is that sort of something that you just sort of you know anything's a possibility and just start keep going till the end yeah I mean I I think all the way since I've started I've said there's no we got really clear with the strategy and how we want to go about it and what we wanted to achieve we knew we want to be a team that built a game style that would stand up in finals footy that was the plan and now we're in finals footy and the time will tell and the test will come where the the way we play stands up but it has been designed that way so I'm confident that that it will but the great challenge for us now is what what's the ceiling we've never put one on we always have said while we've been building towards this these moments that there's no speed limit on how quickly we wanted to achieve the things we wanted to achieve and um you know I think Hawthorne is a club that has had success consistently over you know a long period of time 60 or 70 years now with consistent being a competitor and so the challenge for us is can we um can we continue the role and continue to improve because um obviously the teams you're playing against to getting better B you feel like like like you say it's performance it feels like will hold up performance with the pressure you guys have got and just been able to play in the web play playing the running game was dry it just feels like it's it is set up to to handle it extra intensely finals hopefully yeah I mean I I think when you when you strip back AFL footy um you know it's a it's a simple enough game you know winning your contest being able to keep it in your front half you know th those types of things being able to move the ball and take pressure off yourself apply pressure to the opposition if you go to the basics of theame game they seem to come to the four more in finals um in general you know slightly less scoring um more pressure less free kicks don't know if those stats are actually true just feels like that um and so we need to make sure we're ready we're ready for those for those moments and um there'll be some there'll be some discussion about how we need to play and you know depending on who it is and where it is and all those things over the coming days but at the moment it's a bit of a we've here how important is that week though just for some of the younger Fells just to take stock and celebrate what you've done take time to celebrate what you've done but also I guess just have that week off where the pressure is not on to win a game and they can just dessed for a week and then and then recharge a guard I actually have no idea um there's a part of me that wish we played straight away because that's that's the nature of how we have been playing for the last 10 games so um but there's another part of me that there's three or four guys who will really benefit from having a week off so um obviously will day will be one of those but we had a couple of other banged up players like every other team in the competition right now and um it's a pretty exciting time I think you know the the fans who have come on the journey with us and have supported us through this week um my understanding is I haven't done all of the minations of it but I think we'll be playing an mcg final so to the to the 80 plus th000 hawthor members we're going to get a an mcg home you know home ground final really so um you know I think it's going to be a pretty exciting couple of weeks ahead it's it far too late it's far too early so to know what have and to too far from the game yeah no inserts sorry obviously the end obviously um how fitting was it that you sh that moment with him and in general as well yeah I mean Liam Shields is a great great teammate Premiership team made of mine but also for Luke Bruce and Jack Gunston spent a lot of time with him over the journey really good social friends as well well um so it was it was nice for him to to be able to finish that way and um you know he's had a had a great career and I think um it's very difficult to go out in a way that's romantic um I'm glad that he didn't get the win obviously um but I was pleased that he was able to go out in a way surrounded by teammates that loved him let's take one more yeah I mean I think obviously we had a bit of a lead at that stage and we we wanted to sort of wanted we're talking about trying to get Luke Bruce to bit of game time because he obviously played quite a bit last week and if we could keep him going that would be helpful for him so we wanted to pull the subra B quickly I think nashy got a CKY and he wasn't moving around too well so we thought oh if we can get him out of the game he's obviously pretty important player for us so um once we got him out of the game then um you know that meant we could bring Luke Bruce back in so um I think out of the game there's not there's not any injuries at this stage so um should be hopefully a pretty fit Squad going into the into the finals