Hawthorn is off to a flier in 2025 and has won two games before most key rivals have played a match, but coach Sam Mitchell is adamant there is much for the Hawks to work on after their 26-point triumph over Essendon on Friday night.
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After a stirring win over the Swans in Sydney in their season opening match, the Hawks blitzed the Bombers early at the MCG before griding their way to a 17.9 (111) to 12.13 (85) win in front of 80,735 fans at the MCG on Friday night.
A week after their small forwards endured a famine at the SCG, Nick Watson, Jack Ginnivan and Dylan Moore bounced back with a vengeance as Hawthorn’s efficient ball use enabled them to slice the Dons apart in an opening term blitz.
But Mitchell noted that while the Hawks did well without major contributions from stars including midfielder Will Day, they were beaten in several key metrics by Essendon when beaten in clearances and contested possessions, while also laying less tackles.
Although the Hawks won by 26 points, they entered their attacking 50m arc ten fewer times than their rivals as well and Mitchell has no doubt his midfield lowered its colours to the Bombers, with Jye Caldwell in particular superb.
Those factors, Mitchell said, indicated the Hawks had a “fair bit of work to do” ahead of their clash with Carlton at the MCG next Thursday.
What is certain is that the Hawks, which lost their season-opener to Essendon by four goals last year among a streak of five losses to start the season, have started in vastly superior fashion this year.
“Talking about expectations is a really difficult, difficult thing. This competition is so close. The expectation of the outside world, we’ve always sort of put away to one side,” he said.
“We were a side that wasn’t going where people thought we should. We gutted the list and people though we were tanking. That sort of narrative was out there and we were very deliberate in putting that aside.
“And now, you know, the opposite is happening and people are saying ‘We are all this’, but you have got to put it aside because the evidence of tonight says that we’ve still got a fair bit of work to do.
“And all the evidence that we’ve seen as coaches, as a football club, we would watch tonight’s game and say we’ve got a fair bit of work to do despite being two zip.”
What did please Mitchell was the Hawks ability to wrest back the momentum when Essendon threatened to work its way back into the match in the second and third terms. Even in the last quarter, the Bombers closed to three goals, but each time the Hawks found an answer.
“I think as we mature as a team, we have to handle momentum, and that was a big issue for us over the journey,” he said.
“(That is) not to say we got it all right today, but we are slightly better at handling momentum. When they got a bit of a run on, we were able to execute a couple of things that gave us a bit of time and a bit of consistency in the way we played.
“We saw some evidence last year that when we stick to something, we work hard on it, we make improvements and we know we’ve got to make more who if want to compete against the best when it really matters. Today we were able to do some good stuff in some key moments. But holistically, if you look at that game, that’s not going to get it done.”
The Hawks will be without Jack Scrimshaw against Carlton, who has entered concussion protocols.
He was substituted from the match in the second term after a heavy head knock left him with a nasty gash on his face, but Mitchell said he had spoken to Scrimshaw at half-time.
Prior to that, Scrimshaw was involved in an incident with Jordan Ridley that is likely to be scrutinised, with the Bomber also substituted out of the match with concussion.
“He’ll certainly miss the next game and (he has) some other sort of stuff going on, but nothing’s been confirmed at this stage, so he’ll get checked out over the next couple of days,” Mitchell said.
“It’s pretty hard for his family … to see injuries like that. They are just unfortunate in the game that we play, so (it was) fortunate that he was still talking and chatting away in the rooms. He said to me at halftime, actually, ‘Get the win’. So he’s still sort of with us and (that is) pleasing, because it looks quite nasty.”
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