AFL great Jimmy Bartel has praised Sam Mitchell after the Hawthorn coach ended the club’s six-year finals drought with a decisive win over North Melbourne in the final round. Bartel highlighted a fiery spray from Mitchell early in the season as the catalyst for the Hawks’ impressive run of form, leading to a seventh-place finish at the end of the home-and-away season.
Hawthorn, in their third season under Mitchell, finished with a 14-9 win-loss record and will face the Western Bulldogs in an elimination final at the MCG. Mitchell, a four-time premiership winner with the Hawks, guided the team through a transitional period, with his first two seasons as coach resulting in 13th and 16th-place finishes.
The Hawks seemed to be struggling in 2024, starting the season with a 1-6 record. During this rough patch, Sam Mitchell made headlines for a fierce quarter-time tirade directed at Jack Scrimshaw during a loss to the Sydney Swans. Despite the backlash, Mitchell defended his actions, stating that Scrimshaw “enjoys being coached like that.”
Few could have predicted the dramatic turnaround that followed. After Mitchell’s spray, the Hawks went on to win 13 of their next 16 games, a streak that led to a finals berth. Jimmy Bartel pointed to this moment as a turning point for the club, highlighting Mitchell’s refusal to compromise his standards and his willingness to hold players accountable.
Jimmy Bartel praises Sam Mitchell’s coaching exploits in 2024
The Geelong legend contrasted Mitchell’s early season spray with the joyous scenes he shared with his players after Saturday’s win over the Kangaroos secured their spot in the finals. Mitchell was seen joking with his team and hugging players after the final siren on Saturday and Bartel said the two incidents showed an “emotional intelligence” that is crucial to coaching success.
“You can be happy, you can enjoy the game and you can win. And for a guy who’s still very young in coaching terms, I think that’s been the big tick on him,” Bartel said about Mitchell on Nine’s Footy Furnace. “And I mentioned the players when they talk in the media about their coach, it’s that emotional intelligence – he knows when to push hard and also when to cuddle and enjoy the wins and enjoy the moments.”
Hawthorn surged into their first finals series since 2018 on the back of five wins from their past six games after starting the season winless from their first five. Mitchell said he was buoyed by the team’s performances early in the season despite not getting the results on the scoreboard but warned his in-form team that they’ll need to go to another level if they hope to go deep in the finals series.
“We’re going to have to be consistent for another four games if we’re going to get all the way … winning finals is tough to do but we’ve given ourselves a chance,” Mitchell said. “We wanted to build a team … a game style that stands up in finals footy. Now we’re in finals footy and time will tell. I’m confident that it will (stand up). The great challenge for us now is ‘what is the ceiling?’ I’ve never put one on.”
Mitchell’s Hawks defeated their upcoming finals opponents, the Western Bulldogs, in round eight, which was the first game after the coach’s infamous spray directed at Jack Scrimshaw. The Hawks secured a seven-point victory in their only meeting with the Bulldogs this season and are anticipating another close contest against Luke Beveridge’s side, who secured sixth place after defeating GWS on Sunday.
AFL week one finals schedule:
- Second qualifying final: Port Adelaide v Geelong – Thursday September 5, Adelaide Oval, 7.40pm
- Second elimination final: Western Bulldogs v Hawthorn – Friday September 6, MCG, 7.40pm
- First qualifying final: Sydney v GWS – Saturday September 7, SCG, 3.20pm
- First elimination final: Brisbane Lions v Carlton – Saturday September 7, Gabba, 7.30pm
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