With Hawthorn in town for the third summer in a row, Coffs Coast Advocate chief sports writer BRAD GREENSHIELDS caught up with their captain.
ONE FOR ALL, ALL FOR ONE
BG: With your 2009 season ending four weeks earlier than you hoped, has it given you some extra rest that you may have needed and has it been easier to get into the pre-season?
SM: Well we started four weeks earlier this year. Obviously you’d like to play finals footy but it does give you a pretty good chance to get a good preparation in.
We’ve been working pretty hard and we’ve had a lot longer. We’ve had more time for guys to get over injuries and things and we’re pretty excited aboutmaking up for a disappointing year last year.
BG: The loss in round 22 against Essendon was a virtual elimination final. How hard did it hit the group that they weren’t going to be a part of September action?
SM: We probably thought we’d battled a little bit before that. Rather than being all at once it was sort of death by a thousand cuts if you like. I think we only won nine games for the season so I think if we had of won that game we wouldn’t have deserved a finals spot so I think we were happy to get out and get our bodies right, get surgeries done and just enjoy a little bit of break and get back into it.
BG: While you’re talking about surgeries, in 2009 I think there were only two guys who played all 22 games in yourself and Chance Bateman. It makes it hard to get some consistency when that happens doesn’t it?
SM: I think that happens a lot with teams that don’t happen to make the finals but I think with us it was early on in the season and we couldn’t get any consistency about personnel on the park and having different guys playing in different positions.
It was an inconsistent year but I think we’ve learned a lot from last year and I think we’re going to be better placed as a footy club to go forward.
BG: There’s only about half of the squad training in Coffs this week while most of the remainder are in Papua New Guinea walking the Kokoda track. It’s a walk that you’ve already done but how important is it for Hawthorn?
SM: I guess that’s where we get our values set from. I think Kokoda has been pretty important of our preparation over the last five or six years as we get our values from there and the way that we go about it and have a little bit of an appreciation for what happened.
I think it gives us a central point knowing that everyone has been there. Even a guy like Brent Guerra, he’s been injured the last two times that the guys have gone so he gets to go this time and someone like Josh Gibson who has come over from the Kangaroos, he gets to go and gets to know all of the young players who have gone over there as well and some of the coaches.
I think it gives a fair bit of genuine spirit among our group. We’ve all been through it and Kokoda will be the final step but at least we’ve all got a central point from which we can draw from when times get tough.
BG: How disappointed were you when Patrick Smith criticised the club in his column in The Australian as well as on his radio spot with SEN1116?
SM: To be honest I don’t know what you’re talking about. What were Patrick’s comments?
BG: He wrote (The Australian, October 27) that “the club has reduced the experience to a training drill” and that “it is irksome to use the Kokoda experience as anything other than a mark of respect to our soldiers”.
SM: If they were his comments I’m not sure he’s well informed because what we do is we give all of the players that go and the people that go a book about Kokoda and the Diggers that went there. The group that we go with is called Executive Excellence and they take us through what it would’ve been like being a Digger and being a soldier back then and what they had to put up with and how they lived and having malaria and having to carry huge packs.
Although we do get a little bit of training out of it, we try and simulate as close as we can what those guys did and carrying stretchers and carrying 30 kilo packs through certain stages.
We try to get a real appreciation and for most guys that went over there, not only is it physically draining but it’s very emotionally draining and you start to almost feel like one of the Diggers that were over there. You start to be able to put yourself in their shoes a little bit and you’re just so thankful for what happened.
So I’m not sure about his comments and I don’t want to start a blue but if he thinks that we just go over there to train and don’t worry about anything else then I think he’s a bit mistaken.
The Hawks do have a lot of appreciation for what happened at Kokoda.
BG: Your coach Alastair Clarkson is a bit of a history buff as well isn’t he?
SM: Yeah ‘Clarko’ loves his history and he loves the story of Kokoda.
I think it rings true to him and he thinks it is very important.
The four pillars which are used as a memorial at Isurava we use as our footy club ethos so a lot of stuff that we do goes back to Kokoda.
BG: Getting back onto the footy, you mentioned Josh Gibson before. The inclusion of him and Shaun Burgoyne especially into the midfield, how much is that going to help the team get back on track?
SM: I’m pretty excited for these guys to get involved and it’s good to get a little bit more depth into the club. Having an extra tall defender and extra running midfielder helps especially the calibre of those sort of guys. Not only are they talented players on the field but they bring a fair bit to the footy club off the field as well, they’re pretty impressive guys who we’re more than happy to have on board.
BG: How much did you miss Trent Croad last year?
SM: A fair bit. Obviously he’s a big brute and you need one of those big gorillas down the back half when you can get one.
He’s going along nicely in his rehab so hopefully we’ll see him again but other guys are going to have to play those roles while Trent is trying to get back.
BG: There’s also some virtual recruits at the club in 2010 as guys like Clinton Young and Rick Ladson hardly played at all last year. Even Stephan Gilham only played half of the season.
SM: There’s a lot of positives and as I mentioned before we really learned a lot last year.
Although we didn’t achieve what we wanted to we learned a lot and playing without some of those blokes taught us a lot and now that we can hopefully slot those guys back in they’ll be better for having a bit of time off, getting their bodies right I’m hoping they can have a real impact for us in 2010.
BG: Having been to the top of the mountain, how much further are you driven now that you’ve missed out and you want to go back to it?
SM: Well I certainly enjoyed 2008 more than I did in 2009.
It’s not really about getting back to the top of the mountain, it’s a new mountain that has got to be climbed. I think everyone starts at the same spot and we’re all trying to get to the same place but hopefully we can do it a little bit better than the other 15 clubs.
BG: One thing that amazed me was that after winning the flag in 2008, statistically speaking you still had the youngest list in the comp last year.
SM: Yeah they do like to talk about that but there’s a lot of maturity at the club.
I don’t think age matters all that much.
I think it’s more about maturity and where your players’ mindset is at. I think our playing group is still probably maturing a little bit but once we go a little bit further down that path I think we’re going to be in a good place.
BG: Looking to next year I suppose as captain you’d be more than happy if you didn’t win your third Best & Fairest next year and some other blokes put their hand up to say “I’ll take the Peter Crimmins Trophy off
you”.
SM: Yeah it might be my last one.
Young Cyril (Rioli) in his second year came second so it would be good if someone like him and a few others can get up around it and go past the old fellas like me.
BRAD GREENSHIELDS: Even though it’s a low-key event and few locals know you’re in town, this is actually the third year in a row that Hawthorn have come for a brief camp in Coffs Harbour isn’t it?
SAM MITCHELL: Yeah it is. It gives us a chance to get away and be in an environment where we have to work hard as well as maybe work on some different things and this year being the third year it’s pretty much the same thing.
We like it up here, we think it works for us so we keep doing it.
Last Modified on 03/01/2010 09:44