The Agenda Setters have uncovered the reason behind Sam Mitchell’s half-time spray to ruck Lloyd Meek during half-time of the Hawthorn’s win over Gold Coast on Saturday.
The Hawks conceded two goals late in the second quarter to leave Mitchell fuming at the long break, despite still holding a healthy 23-point advantage.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Sam Mitchell’s half-time spray at Lloyd Meek
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Mitchell could be seen blowing up in the changerooms, with his spray directed at Meek.
Channel 7’s Kane Cornes revealed an errant handball from Meek with 15 seconds remaining in the second term was the reason for the epic blow-up.
“This has been shown but tonight I want to give you the reasons as to what led to this spray to Lloyd Meek,” Cornes said on The Agenda Setters.
“They were in red time here trying to protect the lead just before halftime. They’d conceded three goals in a row and Lloyd Meek does this.
“Now when they’re in red time there’s an instruction not to handball the ball backwards because that invites the pressure from the opposition with 15 seconds to go in the first half.
“Lloyd Meek grabs it out of the ruck and he handballs it back, the turnover, the goal with four seconds left on the clock.
“His teammates had all told him, look that’s not in line with team instructions before Sam Mitchell had got to him.
“Mitchell goes to him gives him the spray. Lloyd Meek goes back and said. look we’ve addressed this, we’ve done this and then we saw the hug after the game.”
Cornes also said that it shows a sign of maturity in standards, that is an improvement on previous years when they were “over celebrating” goals and wins.
“There is a seriousness about that this club and they know they’re in the window to win it now and I think the coach does as well,” he said.
“That is the standards that Hawthorn now live up to which we weren’t seeing two or three years ago.”
Hawthorn great Luke Hodge agreed: “That’s that’s a team who missed out they got to the second final last year then they missed out with the prelim last year.”
“They know a finals game can be a small little turnover like that, whether it’s a win or a loss in a big final so you can tell the standards, the attitude and the mindset from Mitch, it’s filtering through to the players because you’re spot on how they celebrated goals last year was about building the vibe, building the energy, now it’s about building to win a premiership.”
The Agenda Setters panellist Dale Thomas highlighted the recruitment of Josh Battle as a big reason for the emergence as one of the premiership favourites.
Battle joined the Hawks at the end of 2024 and made the All-Australian team last year.
He has since elevated his game to another level, ranking first of all key defenders for contested possessions, and third for disposals and metres gained.
“A big part of what they have done is who they have brought in and Josh Battle is one of those across that backline. He was outstanding last year, All-Australian, and he has elevated his game again alongside Tom Barrass down back,” he said.
“They are playing some world class football, they continue to do this, offence, defence, everything sound around the middle, they are going beautifully.”
The Hawks will look to extend their winning streak to seven for the first time in a decade when they take on Collingwood on Thursday night.
