Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell is drawing on the philosophies of Australian EPL manager Ange Postecoglou to allow his players to radiate joy on the field this season.
The Hawks are among the competition’s hottest teams since Round 6, having won 10 of their past 13 games after a winless first five matches of the AFL season.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Sam Mitchell takes lessons from Ange Postecoglou.
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It’s shot them from 17th on the ladder into genuine finals contention with five rounds to play.
But win or lose, the Hawks have embraced an infectious sense of fun and celebration in their games this year.
Their goal celebrations went to a new level during their win against Collingwood on Saturday, so much so that it drew criticism from fans who saw it as arrogant.
That won’t deter them though, with Mitchell doubling down on the newfound culture at the club, speaking to Channel 7’s Talking Footy, whose hosts found it particularly ironic, given the Brownlow medallist’s own playing style was quite the opposite during his 329-game career.
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“You obviously move with the time and you have to coach to the group that you have,” Mitchell said on Talking Footy.
“If we were trying to get this group to behave in a serious manner, they’d play in a different way. Would that make them better? I don’t think so.
“I think we’ll evolve and, at some point, this will be thrown back at us to say, ‘Look at them carrying on’.”
The 41-year-old clarified that the goal celebrations are nothing new — they were doing the same thing during their poor start to the season.
It’s something for which he found inspiration in Ange Postecoglou’s Tottenham Hotspur.
“What I have loved about this group is they were willing to do the goal celebrations early in the season when we were 0-5 — we were doing goal celebrations and there were people criticising, saying, ‘Look at this, they’re seven goals down and carrying on’. But that’s the joy that they want to play with,” Mitchell went on.
“I think I learned a bit this year from Ange Postecoglou. He did a lot of stuff overseas where he was talking about… football’s a hard sport, and when you get on a roll and you have goals you should celebrate them and your fans should celebrate them.”
Connor MacDonald celebrated one of his four goals with a unique hand gesture on his forehead, a move that Mitchell said was anything but “individualistic”.
“There’s been a lot of focus, everything I see is about the celebrations. They are celebrating a lot of good things,” Mitchell said.
“That one there (MacDonald’s) is an example of why they celebrate. Dave McKay, our opposition analyst, he did this fantastic video, saying when you play a team like Collingwood, it’s like two rams going at each other and you have to meet it head-on, and it takes two hours for these rams to just headbutt each other until one gives up. And no one will give up in a Hawthorn versus Collingwood game.
“So, when Connor MacDonald does that celebration, he’s actually shouting out to the players to say to go back to what we were focused on as a team.
“You think it’s individualistic, but they’re actually celebrating it together. I think that’s why it’s been embraced.”