Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell was not mucking around in the aftermath of his team’s dramatic loss to Fremantle on Thursday night, immediately locking his players away for an extended post-match meeting.
As Channel 7 completed its coverage of the pulsating battle at Optus Stadium, live pictures showed an intense meeting between the master coach and his sore and sorry players.
AFLW legend Daisy Pearce and respected commentator Hamish McLachlan were both surprised when seeing the rare vision.
“These are live shots, Daisy,” McLachlan said. “The Hawks went in, went into their rooms, went into the meeting room, and (Sam Mitchell) has had them in there since.”
Pearce, who is also a coach in the AFLW, admitted it was very unusual, particularly for such a long meeting thought to be close to 20 minutes.
“It’s a bit different,” she said. “This must be quite analytical ... (judging) by the expressions on the team’s faces. I mean, most coaches wouldn’t use this moment to get after that.”
Pearce said it was common practice for coaches to “let the emotion go out of the game” before talking to the players, “and then address it Monday”.
“But obviously it was something significant enough that he wanted to get at it straight away,” she said. “I mean, there were a lot of moments in that last quarter where Fremantle just stood up. Maybe it’s something as simple as that.”
McLachlan said it was intriguing watching Mitchell pace “up and back” with the players’ eyes glued to him.
“But that’s a long time to be in there for a post-match address,” Pearce said.
The Hawks led the match by 17 points with just over seven minutes remaining before Fremantle piled on five unanswered goals to snatch the 12.16 (88) to 11.7 (73) win.
Fremantle racked up 21 inside 50m entries to four in a rampant final quarter, with ruckman Luke Jackson the key architect in a nine-disposal, three-clearance term.
The weight of numbers eventually took its toll as Hawthorn’s players began to look increasingly helpless in the wake of the Fremantle avalanche.
Mitchell didn’t sugar coat his assessment when analysing the game.
“We knew coming here to play ... that we were going to be up against it, and we were going to have to play 120 minutes,” Mitchell said. “Unfortunately, 90 won’t get it done against the Dockers, and we learned that lesson. Hit us right in the face to be fair.”
Mitchell conceded the territory battle became overwhelming in the final quarter.
“We went away from a few things that we were meant to be doing across that last 15 minutes of the game,” Mitchell said. “We already half-reviewed it, to be honest, about these are things that are going to cost us big games. We shot ourselves in the foot with the way we set the game up tonight, late in the game. We’ve talked a lot this year about being ready to play and win against the best sides, and we proved tonight that we’re not quite there.”
In an added blow, Hawthorn are set to be without star defender Tom Barrass for at least several games after the former Eagle injured his left hamstring in the second quarter.
Veteran forward Jack Gunston, who kicked five first-half goals on the way to a six-goal haul, injured his ankle late and was in a moon boot after the game.
Hawthorn (6-2-1) will be aiming to bounce back from a winless fortnight when they face Melbourne at the MCG next week.
