Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell says his gamers are blissful to be the “villains” and spoil Dustin Martin’s three hundredth sport on Saturday however has his fingers crossed one in every of his ruckmen is offered to assist make that occur.
Mitchell stated Ned Reeves was nonetheless “standing in conferences” as he battled again spasms and with query marks over Lloyd Meek’s ankle, it may very well be a plan C choice to tackle Tigers captain Toby Nankervis on the MCG.
Hawthorn used utility Josh Weddle as a ruckman in final week’s stirring win over GWS that has Mitchell’s males on the verge of profitable a fourth sport in a row for the primary time since 2019.
Standing in the best way of that taking place will probably be a fired-up Richmond outfit trying to have a good time a participant Mitchell stated was as “good a participant as we’ve seen on this technology”, conceding it was exhausting to keep away from the hype round Martin’s milestone.
“I don’t assume I have to deliver it up. It’s been all over the place I’ve seen,” Mitchell stated on Thursday.
“He’s as a participant as we’ve seen on this technology. It’s fairly a privilege to have the ability to play on this sport as a membership. We’ll do our greatest to play our function as a villain and spoil the get together. We’re blissful to play that.”
Regardless of shifting to inside only a single win of getting into the highest eight, and matching final 12 months’s total season tally of eight wins, Mitchell was detest to speak about rising expectations for the Hawks after wins over the Giants and final 12 months’s grand finalists Brisbane Lions previously three weeks.
“Everybody loves their workforce and everybody has enormous hopes and I hope Hawthorn followers have enormous hopes for the place we’re going,” he stated.
“How rapidly that’s, we’re doing all the things we are able to to make that as quick as potential and so they can dream as large as they like. We’ve no management past Richmond this week.”
Mitchell stated each of his ruckmen have been a “check” however Meek was extra more likely to rise up than Reeves, with Max Ramsden more likely to are available in to keep away from utilizing the backups once more.
“Large Ned, his again seized up, he hasn’t moved round too effectively, he’s nonetheless standing up within the conferences which is rarely signal,” he stated.
“It’s an necessary function, hopefully one in every of them will get up.”
Whereas the main target will probably be on Martin’s milestone, Mitchell stated the fiftieth sport of Changkuoth Jiath had its personal significance for the Hawks given “what he’s needed to undergo” with a number of harm interruptions early in his thrilling profession.
“He’s by no means fairly had it straightforward; he’s all the time had one thing troublesome to work by way of and a few nice challenges,” he stated.
“I’m actually pleased with what he’s been in a position to do that season to get again from the setbacks that he had.
“The gamers will probably be actually excited to expire with him for his fiftieth and know that his subsequent 50 are going to be some fairly particular moments.“
