Hawthorn has won five of its last seven matches after starting the season 0-5 and coach Sam Mitchell thinks his side is now at a point to match it with every side in the competition while addressing a wild interaction between “rascal pack” teammates Jack Ginnivan and Will Day.
It comes after a strong 27-point win against Adelaide at the MCG on Saturday where the Hawks kicked 10 of the first 12 goals of the game to climb to within two wins of the top eight following the fifth victory of the campaign.
“I was really pleased that we kept the foot down for the majority of the game; I think we’re showing more and more maturity as a group,” he said.
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“The players have a great understanding of what our best looks like and how we can produce it – we are doing that more and more often.
“It’s taken us time to get to this point but we are finally at a point now where we should be competitive against every side.
Mitchell said his side still had to work to become a top-tier team in the competition however.
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“We talked about it in pre-season, we would like to put ourselves in winnable positions more often,” he said.
“We have been able to do that over the last five games, winning four of them.
“The best teams, they’re competitive and in winnable positions in 20 games in a row, not five, so we know we still got some work to do.
“But we certainly gave a little bit of extra evidence today that our best will hold up.”
The Hawks fired through veteran forward Jack Gunston in the encounter who scored three goals in his 250th game.
Mitchell said “it’s a great story, a bit of a fairy tale for him today”.
“Regardless of the goals that he kicks, I have been so consistent in saying his biggest value is what he is doing off the field, he is like an extra assistant coach for us,” he said.
“He is helping that forward line chemistry that you mentioned, he is helping us to continue building that.
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“If you look at our forward line today, Dylan Moore kicks five and has 20-odd and Ginnivan had five or six shots at goal and had over 20 and it’s all off the back of the learning that they are getting from Jack Gunston and Luke Breust.”
Ginnivan kicked an epic snap goal on the three-quarter time before celebrating with gusto with his teammates.
It included Day getting fired up with excitement to the point of pushing and shouting at the ex-Magpie, who’d snubbed two of his teammates earlier in the quarter and missed a set shot.
“He is most excited with himself and the goal is Jack Ginnivan! He’s done about four celebrations in the space of 15 seconds,” Fox Footy caller Mark Howard exclaimed.
So passionate was the celebration – even appearing aggressive – it prompted Day to take to X (formerly known as Twitter) to clarify it was indeed just done with enthusiasm. Day posted a Ginnivan photo with the caption attached: “Love this guy, just a fired up celebration chill OTTNO (on to the next one).”
In true Ginnvan style, the small forward couldn’t help but cheekily respond, saying: “We f***ing hate each other.”
Mitchell also explained that the animated moment was simply a showing of how his young side interacts.
“They are really close, I sort of call them the rascal pack. There is this whole little group of players, they spend all this time together, and they have all got their celebrations, and all those things,” Mitchell said.
“Basically, what I think was happening, they were getting into ‘Ginni’ because his two best mates are right in front of him, and he didn’t see them, and he had a shot at goal. They are into him about that. ‘Daysy’ is like, ‘That’s a boy, you have made up for it’.
“I think the banter that those guys have, in a fun way, they are having great fun playing footy as young men in their early 20s. But, by the same token, they have started to hold each other to a higher account. If you look at us as a group, I think they are a good snapshot.
“They started off in their careers having fun, and perhaps not doing everything they should be doing. Now, when they go outside of what they know is the best thing for the team, they pull each other up, so the coaches don’t need to get involved, and they are basically running themselves.”
Gunston, Moore and Ginnivan combined for 10 goals in the 16.11 (107) to 12.8 (80) win.
The Hawks face GWS and Richmond in their next two encounters before the bye.
Source Agencies
