Brownlow medallist Tom Mitchell’s days as a record-breaking ball winner look over under new coach Sam Mitchell.
The Hawthorn star has spent considerably less time at centre bounces and in the midfield in general this season, with coach Mitchell keen to spread the load and prioritise defensive running.
It’s an interesting development, particularly given the Hawks lost 11 of the 12 centre clearances when Tom Mitchell was in there against Carlton last weekend.
Mitchell is the only player in VFL/AFL history to twice average 35-plus disposals across a season, with Western Bulldog Jack Macrae having to playing two extra games last year to break his all-time league disposals record.
The 28-year-old has still won his share of the Sherrin in 2022, but his disposals have plummeted from 34.3 to 26.7 and his uncontested possessions and groundball gets have also dipped.
Young duo Josh Ward and Jai Newcombe have broken into the midfield rotation, alongside stand-in captain Jaeger O’Meara, Mitchell and James Worpel, while Conor Nash was used as a mobile ruckman last week.
“It’s not that I don’t want that (Mitchell having big numbers), but at the moment that’s not what we’re after,” Sam Mitchell said.
“We’re continuing to evolve and make progress. We’re still a developing team looking to get better each week and despite having a really good win in Adelaide in round 2, then losing at the weekend, I still thought we made progress.
“We need to find ways to not be 18th for centre bounces but we don’t want to lose our defensive running, whixjmtzywch has held us in really good stead. I think we’re second at stopping turnover scores.
“We know that’s part of the game that is really important, which we’re focused on so far. But we can’t afford to be 18th for clearances for the whole year, so we’ll continue to evolve.”
Mitchell pointed to O’Meara playing a defensive role on Carlton skipper Patrick Cripps last week as an example of the way his players, including Mitchell, were sacrificing their individual games for the greater good.
He conceded Tom Mitchell had “a different role” against the Blues, with his game time up forward this season spiking to 29 per cent from 10 per cent last year.
That has resulted in Mitchell’s metres gained and score involvements both going up.
Chad Wingard (calf) will be out for at least Saturday’s clash with St Kilda and potentially longer but Mitchell was confident Jack Scrimshaw (scapula) would recover in time to play.
A decision will be made on whether to recall Jarman Impey (ankle/foot) after playing three quarters in the VFL last week.
“(Wingard) got stepped on in the first quarter and he tried to keep going but he got through the game and it looks like there’s a bit of other damage in there,” Mitchell said.
“But, just on the scans, it’s quite hard to tell when there’s so much blood around it. So, we’re hopeful for next week, but we’ll know more then.”
Mitchell would not reveal who would get the big job on St Kilda target Max King but praised the Saints spread of talent, saying there was “not many chinks in their armour”.
