Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell is hopeful some good can come from his AFL aspect’s 82-point thumping from Geelong.
It was a Monday bloodbath on the MCG because the inexperienced Hawks did not capitalise on alternatives within the first half and had been made to pay.
The Cats, winless over the opening three rounds, piled on 10 unanswered targets within the third quarter and kicked 15 to 1 after the primary break.
“Everything is an opportunity to learn for us,” Mitchell stated.
“As a playing and coaching group we can handle some amount of adversity, but if it crosses that threshold we second-guess ourselves and play on the back foot.
“We cannot get something going for us and we’re a bit shell-shocked actually.”
Mitchell conceded he had no answers to Geelong’s dominance during the third term as the Hawks conceded 22 inside-50s to none and were kept scoreless.
“They simply blew us away actually,” Mitchell stated.
“When they had been buzzing at their finest – they’re clearly the premiers from final 12 months – they had been simply too good for us.”
Mitchell turned to injured forward Mitch Lewis during the Cats’ third-quarter onslaught for advice on how he could help his players.
The coach moved from the box to the bench for the final quarter.
Geelong fielded one of the oldest teams in AFL/VFL history, second only to their grand final team from last year.
In stark contrast, the Hawks had only one player over the age of 30 – Mitchell’s premiership teammate Luke Breust.
Mitchell lamented his younger players’ inability to do the basics well under pressure.
“There had been primary dropped marks or missed kicks and people issues that we did not do within the first half,” he stated.
“When we did them within the second half, we dropped our heads and misplaced our approach.
“We’ll get better at those things but it’s going to be a hard watch, the second half.”
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
