Ahead of one of the most anticipated AFL matches of the season, Hawthorn Football Club senior coach Sam Mitchell has remained tight-lipped about his full game plan, but confirmed his coaching staff has prepared multiple strategic approaches to shut down Collingwood Magpies superstar Nick Daicos when the two sides face off on Thursday night.
Currently riding a six-match winning streak, the Hawks have emerged as one of the most in-form teams in the 2024 AFL competition. However, Mitchell acknowledges that securing a seventh consecutive victory will depend heavily on his side’s ability to limit Daicos’ impact across the ground. While Hawthorn defender Finn Maginness successfully neutralized Daicos in their 2023 matchup, Mitchell stressed that relying on a single tactic would be insufficient against the young, rapidly improving star.
In a playful press interaction, Mitchell joked about keeping his strategies under wraps, telling reporters: “That’s a good question, have you got any ideas? No? Me neither.” He later confirmed: “We’ve got a couple of things up our sleeve that we’ll use, you’ll find out on Thursday night, hopefully we can stop him.”
Mitchell noted that Maginness’ 2023 performance remains a reliable option in Hawthorn’s tactical toolkit, but the 22-year-old Collingwood gun has elevated his game considerably since that clash. “Just because it worked once, it doesn’t mean it works again. Nick, even though he was a star from the first game he played, he’s improved his game year-on-year. He’s better now than what he was this time last year, so how we stop him is a big challenge,” Mitchell explained.
The coach also emphasized that his staff has mapped out multiple contingency plans, accounting for the ripple effects of limiting Daicos’ involvement. “So if we stop him, what does it open up for them is something we need to weigh up because he’s obviously a potent player wherever he plays and we certainly need to have plan A, B and C for Nick Daicos,” he added.
The blockbuster comes off the back of a hard-fought win for Hawthorn against the Gold Coast Suns in Tasmania last weekend. Mitchell used the post-match press conference to highlight clear growth in his young side, particularly in their ability to manage momentum shifts throughout matches – a key area of focus following their exit from the 2023 finals series at the preliminary final stage.
“One of the areas we needed to work on was managing momentum and with that comes a little bit of maturity,” Mitchell said. “When I looked at our game last week, it felt like a bit more of a mature performance. It wasn’t just run and gun at all costs and it wasn’t slow it down at all costs. We picked and chose how to defend and how to attack different moments in the game and we felt like that gave us better opportunities to control momentum.”
Mitchell acknowledged that the side still has room for improvement after conceding several unforced goals against the Suns, but framed the overall performance as a clear step forward in the team’s development. “We didn’t get it all right – we gave away some easy goals at different stages – but the thinking behind it I felt was a much more mature version of what we want to be,” he said.
Drawing a parallel to past premiership-winning sides, Mitchell noted that consistent success at the highest level requires a foundational level of team maturity that complements the club’s young, exciting playing group. “If you look at premiership sides historically, there’s a level of maturity across their team. Hopefully we play with a young, vibrant energy that people want to come and see and they’re still going to do their celebrations. But underlying it is a level of maturity that is needed to win big games.”