It'll take you 5 minutes to read but it's well worth it.
New Hawthorn captain Sam Mitchell has always done things his way.
PETER RYAN meets the polite suburban boy who also happens to be one of the game's most damaging players.
Sam Mitchell was a sporting nobody seven years ago. Now, he's the best stoppage player in the game. Along the way he has won an AFL Rising Star award, a club best and fairest, finished fourth in the Brownlow Medal and last October was named Hawthorn captain.
At 25, he's gobbling up life. He spent the post-season break in Thailand on the Hawks' footy trip before climbing Mount Kinabalu in Malaysia with his girlfriend Lyndall Degenhardt. He lives with Degenhardt in a stylish, but simple terrace house in Hawthorn. A framed world map hangs in the hallway entrance; books and paintings stare down on a tidy living area. The study off the hallway is well used. The three-month old cat, Tom, has commandeered the front room. A barbecue sits out the back. There is no pretension about the house, or the host. Mitchell might be more advanced financially than the average 25-year-old but he is no show-off.
Whatever he has, he's earned. He's now an elite AFL player - a dominator at the stoppages at a time when such a stock is most highly valued. He wears tth Hawks' revered No.5 jumper made famous by another blond Hawk captain, Peter Crimmins. Many believe the club he leads is - after a long gestation period - a genuine premiership contender.
At home, in respose, Mitchell is polite, the sort of bloke who would offer a tradesman a drink. He offers me coffee mixing a tumbler of water and ice and taking me outside to a small, private backyard. Later, he confirms my first impression when he say's: "We're normal. People think we have a certain lifestyle and we do certain things but we are very normal, except we get home earlyer."
He cuddles Tom, examining the abrasion around the kitten's eye, hesitating before letting him wander around the backyard. An appointment with a local vet is a couple of hours away. At my instigation, the subject turns to family. Mitchell is very much the boy in the middle.
He has four sisters: two older, Heidi and Jo, who both have children of their own, and two younger, twins Amy and Tina. He describes his mum, Margo, as a bit of a larrikin: "She's one of those ladies who goes, 'Hi darling' to the boys and gives them a kiss. Useally that is quite embarrassing for the son. I guess i was embarrassed for the first 10 years but i'm used to it now."
Perhaps this explains Mitchell's ability to not worrie about what other people think. If he want's to do something, he'll do it, whether it's reading a book on the team bus (and copping some ribbing from teammates as a result) or preparing in the same methodical way before every game.
More likely, he's just strong mentally. His dad, Wayne, a former touring car driver who has hardly missed sam play, is capable, say's Mitchell, of giving him a "kick up the bum" if it is required. "You're never going to build resilience in anyone when you tell them how well they're doing. The best feedback i've ever had is from the people who have cared the most," he says.
Mitchell has always enjoyed strong support from his parents. He joined them over Christmas in Corowa, the Mitchells' traditional family holiday spot on the Murray River. He rode his pushbike 290 kilometers from Melbourne - with Degenhardt driving next to him as a saftey measure - to get there. And stayed in shape while there. Nothing unusaual in training over the break, say's Mitchell. Nor spending time with your family, i think.
He appears so normal you can't imagine a mum who wouldn't love him.
So how has he become such a good player? It's tempting to search for reference points beyond the obvious. Take his love of reading. I wonder if he finds it humourous that this passion of his is considered unusual. "I don't know what it is about that. Maybe it's because we're supposed to be dumb jocks." It's true he was devouring Gandhi's biography when he won the 2003 AFL Rising Star award but he is hardly Oprah Winfrey.
"I'm like anyone else who reads - they go through phases where they just can't get away from books. I also have times where i go for a couple of weeks where i don't even pick one up," he says.
He's resolved that institutional education is not the best path for him. He enrolled in surveying, civil engineering and bussiness-related subjects before he came to that conclusion. Aware of the contacts that football provides, he does not worrie about missing out. "I'd prefer to educate myself," he says's.
Clearly, Mitchell has a questioning mind. He has, it seems, developed an entrepreneur's approach to football. He's identified his strengths, worked on his weaknesses and continues to find ways to be the best he can be. David Parkin, a mentor to many young Hawks in recent years, says of the new skipper: "I've not known another player who has such a continuous improvment philosophy or attitude in my life in footy."
"And i have had some wonderful players who have worked very hard at their game."
Parkin remains astounded at Mitchell's desire to find ways to improve. Even after Parkin left the Hawks (where he was football director from 2001-02), Mitchell kept seeking his advise. If Mitchell knew Parkin was attending a game, he would ask him to watch. Parkin detail the positives and negitives and write a report of the game, before dropping it off in Mitchell's letterbox. "He'd be back at 100 miles per hour, either on the phone or in person to talk the issues through and ask: 'What can i do about that?'" says Parkin.
"Most of us are susceptible to criticism. But sam welcomes it if it's constructive. His thirst for how we can do this better is a fabulous philosophy for a bloke who is now one of the better players in the compitition and is leading a league club."
Mitchell admits he is mature beyond his years. When Degenhardt wants to stir him up, she teases him about being "born old". He claims a fair-dinkum AFL player will have, whether they like it ir not, a compressed youth. "I felt like i went from 18 to 25 in about 18 months. Now i'm 25 i feel like i'm God know how old," he says. Maturity, he thinks, allows young people to become better players more quickly. He believes AFL teams should emphasise maturity when setting standards as much as they do commitment and discipline. It's easy to see why Donald McDonald, the straight-talking former Hawthorn assistant coach, describes Mitchell as a natural leader.
McDonald is one of Mitchell's biggest supporters. He coached him to a premiership and J.J. Liston Trophy at the Box Hill Hawks in the VFL.
He learned to be direct with Mitchell. "A good thing with Sammy is you can talk to him man to man," says McDonald. In round eight of the 2003 season, Mitchell was dropped. It was a shock. He figured his coach, Peter Schwab, was responcible. McDonald let him know otherwise.
He'd argued for Mitchell's demotion because the midfielder had failed the week before to pick up Kangaroo Anthony Stevens in a match the Hawks lost by 28 points. McDonald told his young charge that he had been selfish. He also told him to pull his head in, as he was getting ahead of himself. "I was like,'Oh my God'," says Mitchell. "I was shattered at the time. I went back to Box Hill, played one game and i was a far, far better player for that experience."
It could be his ability to handle feedback that sets Mitchell apart from the pack. It's not that he doesn't respond with the usual emotions; it's just that he learns from it.
Bohdan Babijczuk, the laid-back sports fitness guru now a Melbourne, noticed Mitchell was different from most when he took charge of improving his running in 2001. "Sam has an ego to some degree yet he had no ego when it come to getting the results he wanted," he says.
Babijczuk remembers taking the Hawks to train with and compete for Glenhuntly Athletics Club. At one meeting Mitchell was passed by a 13-year-old girl in a 1500-metre race. Most would be embarrased.
According to Babijczuk, it didn't deter Mitchell. He knew persistance was the only solution. Now, according to Babijczuk, Mitchell is transformed.
"Shane Crawford would have been a big influence," he says.
Mitchell is happy to admit that he chased Crawford from the moment he was drafted at the end of the 2001 season, after playing in Box Hill's VFL premiership team. Crawford was the best. Mitchell was last on the list. He decided that if he wanted to be better than Crawford, he needed to train harder than the 1999 Brownlow Medallist. "If i train like him then he's there and i'm here then i'll never bridge that gap.
So my philosophy is that you've got to train harder than anyone else to do that," he explains.
Sometimes he knows he has made a fool of himself. If a session included five runs, Mitchell would blow up after two sprints: his attempts to keep up with the skipper appearing idiotic to some.
Hawthorn's culture, he say's, was different to what it is now. Mitchell was heckled and called a brown nose. People would say, 'There's Mitch, 'Crawf' must be nearby'." Crawford recalls any banter as being light-hearted rather than anything malicious. Mitchell say's he ignored it. Both just kept going a top pace. "He (Crawford) probably got annoyed at me yapping at his heals all the time and asking a million questions but that what footy is all about - trying to improve."
When i asked Crawford if he remembers Sam annoying him, his response is quick. "He still does," he laughs. Then he speaks with admiration. "I noticed it. He had a real impact when he came down just by being so enthusiastic and doing everything, and more, to give himself achane to play. When we'd do competitive suff and match-play stuff, he'd always grab me. You knew he was going to run himself into the ground. So even when they just wanted you to get through the session, he was always pushing me to the limit because you don't like anyone getting the better of you."
Some people misread Mitchell's desire to be the best as arrogance.
Perhaps the high standards he sets for himself frightened people. He was already hungry to learn, his failure to be noticed in 2000 made him ravenous. He admits now he didn't realise at the time how shattered when no club even rookie-listed him in 2000. He won two consecutive Eastern Football League best and fairest awards as a junior with Mooroolbark Football Club, then two Eastern Ranges best and fairests in succession. He never got bitter, nor blamed anyone, but he hurt.
"It was no one's fault. If it was anyone's fault, it was my fault that i didn't impress the right people."
By the time he reached the AFL, he was acutely aware of his strengths and weaknesses: "I was very good at some things but i was terrible in other areas. I needed to work on that and i have been able to do that."
When he latched onto Crawford, he knew what he was doing: learning from the best. At times though he was too blunt. He would challange young players, telling them they were fortunate to be earning senior selection and needed to work harder. Even his supporters say sometimes he missed the mark. He reassessed his approach. He reads books on psychology in an effort to understand the different ways people respond. He had heart-to-heart conversations with those he trusted.He reflected on outcomes. "I still could get better," he says.
Those around him say he's learned quickly. His predecessor as captain, Richie Vandenburg, says Mitchell will be a very good communicator as skipper: "It's something that Sam has been able to understand over the past couple of years. He's a very articulate and smart bloke, so he'll be able to find the various styles required to deal with the guys individually."
Crawford says Mitchell has become a better person as he's settled into the club. "He's alot more approachable he's so focused on playing and playing well. Now he's giving more of himself and he's really developed. It's one of those reasons he's now our captain."
When you hear this story, you recognise Mitchell takes responcibility for his performance on and off the field. He doesn't tell you directly.
He allows his actions to speak for him.
The area that he's always excelled in is at the stoppages. Capable of orchestrating the flow of a game with his sublime ability to win the contested football, you don't need to seek out any clearance statistics to recognise it. When Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse compared Mitchell fabourably with dual Brownlow medallist and stoppage genius Greg Williams after a game in 2005, no one blinked. Crawford has no hesitation in naming Mitchell as the best inside player he has played with or seen. In the modern game it is the most valuable of skills. Coaches believe now that the best way to beat floods is to win stoppages. Rule changes limiting a ruckman's run-up means the football falls at their feet more often, buried under arm and legs waiting for midfielders to win it. Mitchell is ruthless when chasing it. "I think the game is all about intent," he says. "If you're ready to go after the footy, it doesn't matter if you're the closest or not the closest. If you mant it, the you're more likely to get it." In his fourth senior game he knocked his childhood idol - StKilda champion Robert Harvey - off the ball and won it himself. The siren went. Mitchell was left standing with the Sherrin in his hands. He stops mid-story as if to indicate the sudden burst of recognition he felt: "I thought: It's not always someone else'."
"He's actually the prototype physically," says Babijczuk. according to Babijczuk, the distance between Mitchell's elbow and wrist is shorter than most. These "short levers", as weightlifters describe such physical characteristics, allow him to quickly dish off the ball in tight. He worked hard to be able to exploit any natural advantage. He once met Williams - the introduction arranged by Simon Dalrymple, then a coach at the Eastern Ranges and now with the Western Bulldogs, who noticed the similarities between the two. Williams gave Mitchell some drills to work on. One included handballing and kicking to a friend on the move holding out an outstretched hand. Mitchell aimed to hit the still hand, developing precision in an area where many are happy with near enough. He'd practise to be perfect before training, or in the warm-up, or after training, his propensity to arrive at training an hour before anyone else well known. Powerful with natural balance, he's nearly impossible to knock off the ball. His reflexes are awesome, a trait he speculates may have come from his parents (his father Wayne raced group c touring cars in the 1970's as a privateer against Peter Brock and Allan Moffat while his mother is a theatre nurse. Both require skills with the hands).
Then there is his pace. Coaches in American Football like to distinguish between pace and quickness. They argue that most games of football are played in tight, confined spaces that require quick changes of direction. By that definition, Mitchell is quick, moving from acceleration to top speed like a slingshot. He has also become a better runner overall. "I'd probably appear slower than i might be, although you won't see me on Grand Final day winning the Grand Final sprint," he says. He knows he'll never be elite in that area, but he believes he is more rounded than he's sometimes given credit for. "I don't think you can play AFL footy purely as an inside player. It's probably a misconception of me," he says.
If anything, knowledge of his deficiencies has stopped Mitchell from cutting corners. As a 17-year-old, he began at 10am Sundays with John Bigelow, a running coach from Melbourne's eastern suburbs.
"Sam would never be there at 10 past, he'd be there at 10 sharp," says long-time friend, Ben Heenan. "Nothing has changed." This focus never left him. Just before Christmas, Mitchell recorded 2.96 seconds for a 20-metre sprint. The best time at last years AFL draft camp was 2.83 seconds for 20 metres recorded by David Gourdis (picked by Richmond in the pre-season draft).
A week after the interview, i'm reading a book Mitchell had mentioned in passing - Management Secrets of the New England Patriots - when a description of leadership jumps off the page: Great leaders, it read, "embody a paradoxical mix of persona humility and professional will. They are ambitious, to be sure, but ambitious first and foremost for the company, not themselves".
It's Mitchell's next challenge. He was co-vice captain (with Luke Hodge) for two seasons but the greater responsibility this year will force him to take a wider view. Vandenburg is tipping Mitchell will lead from the front, setting the example for others to follow. "He'll be very understanding and he;s also highly motivated and very driven. He'll expect very high standards of the playing group," he says. Crawford said the players had no hesitation in choosing Mitchell and Hodge captain and vice-captain. "He's focused on what we're trying to achieve and that is to win alot of games and become success," says Crawford.
Mitchell says Vandenburg has left agreat legacy, a structure and culture that makes being captain easier than it would have otherwise been. "The 'behind closed doors' part of my role has been very simple so far. Really it's just a maintenance role until the game comes and who knows what's going to happen then, i haven't done it before," he says.
Mitchell knows - like great bussiness entrepreneurs - you can never stop learning. He does not know all the answers, but will keep searching for ways for things to be done better. "You probably understand exactly where you're at for 20 per cent of the time," he says. "Sometimes you think you're going alright and you're not. Sometimes you think you're struggling and you're actually going OK," he muses.
But there is one thing he does know: "Always keep Tuesday night free for your girlfriend."
I typed this from AFL mag '4QUARTERS'
New Hawthorn captain Sam Mitchell has always done things his way.
PETER RYAN meets the polite suburban boy who also happens to be one of the game's most damaging players.
Sam Mitchell was a sporting nobody seven years ago. Now, he's the best stoppage player in the game. Along the way he has won an AFL Rising Star award, a club best and fairest, finished fourth in the Brownlow Medal and last October was named Hawthorn captain.
At 25, he's gobbling up life. He spent the post-season break in Thailand on the Hawks' footy trip before climbing Mount Kinabalu in Malaysia with his girlfriend Lyndall Degenhardt. He lives with Degenhardt in a stylish, but simple terrace house in Hawthorn. A framed world map hangs in the hallway entrance; books and paintings stare down on a tidy living area. The study off the hallway is well used. The three-month old cat, Tom, has commandeered the front room. A barbecue sits out the back. There is no pretension about the house, or the host. Mitchell might be more advanced financially than the average 25-year-old but he is no show-off.
Whatever he has, he's earned. He's now an elite AFL player - a dominator at the stoppages at a time when such a stock is most highly valued. He wears tth Hawks' revered No.5 jumper made famous by another blond Hawk captain, Peter Crimmins. Many believe the club he leads is - after a long gestation period - a genuine premiership contender.
At home, in respose, Mitchell is polite, the sort of bloke who would offer a tradesman a drink. He offers me coffee mixing a tumbler of water and ice and taking me outside to a small, private backyard. Later, he confirms my first impression when he say's: "We're normal. People think we have a certain lifestyle and we do certain things but we are very normal, except we get home earlyer."
He cuddles Tom, examining the abrasion around the kitten's eye, hesitating before letting him wander around the backyard. An appointment with a local vet is a couple of hours away. At my instigation, the subject turns to family. Mitchell is very much the boy in the middle.
He has four sisters: two older, Heidi and Jo, who both have children of their own, and two younger, twins Amy and Tina. He describes his mum, Margo, as a bit of a larrikin: "She's one of those ladies who goes, 'Hi darling' to the boys and gives them a kiss. Useally that is quite embarrassing for the son. I guess i was embarrassed for the first 10 years but i'm used to it now."
Perhaps this explains Mitchell's ability to not worrie about what other people think. If he want's to do something, he'll do it, whether it's reading a book on the team bus (and copping some ribbing from teammates as a result) or preparing in the same methodical way before every game.
More likely, he's just strong mentally. His dad, Wayne, a former touring car driver who has hardly missed sam play, is capable, say's Mitchell, of giving him a "kick up the bum" if it is required. "You're never going to build resilience in anyone when you tell them how well they're doing. The best feedback i've ever had is from the people who have cared the most," he says.
Mitchell has always enjoyed strong support from his parents. He joined them over Christmas in Corowa, the Mitchells' traditional family holiday spot on the Murray River. He rode his pushbike 290 kilometers from Melbourne - with Degenhardt driving next to him as a saftey measure - to get there. And stayed in shape while there. Nothing unusaual in training over the break, say's Mitchell. Nor spending time with your family, i think.
He appears so normal you can't imagine a mum who wouldn't love him.
So how has he become such a good player? It's tempting to search for reference points beyond the obvious. Take his love of reading. I wonder if he finds it humourous that this passion of his is considered unusual. "I don't know what it is about that. Maybe it's because we're supposed to be dumb jocks." It's true he was devouring Gandhi's biography when he won the 2003 AFL Rising Star award but he is hardly Oprah Winfrey.
"I'm like anyone else who reads - they go through phases where they just can't get away from books. I also have times where i go for a couple of weeks where i don't even pick one up," he says.
He's resolved that institutional education is not the best path for him. He enrolled in surveying, civil engineering and bussiness-related subjects before he came to that conclusion. Aware of the contacts that football provides, he does not worrie about missing out. "I'd prefer to educate myself," he says's.
Clearly, Mitchell has a questioning mind. He has, it seems, developed an entrepreneur's approach to football. He's identified his strengths, worked on his weaknesses and continues to find ways to be the best he can be. David Parkin, a mentor to many young Hawks in recent years, says of the new skipper: "I've not known another player who has such a continuous improvment philosophy or attitude in my life in footy."
"And i have had some wonderful players who have worked very hard at their game."
Parkin remains astounded at Mitchell's desire to find ways to improve. Even after Parkin left the Hawks (where he was football director from 2001-02), Mitchell kept seeking his advise. If Mitchell knew Parkin was attending a game, he would ask him to watch. Parkin detail the positives and negitives and write a report of the game, before dropping it off in Mitchell's letterbox. "He'd be back at 100 miles per hour, either on the phone or in person to talk the issues through and ask: 'What can i do about that?'" says Parkin.
"Most of us are susceptible to criticism. But sam welcomes it if it's constructive. His thirst for how we can do this better is a fabulous philosophy for a bloke who is now one of the better players in the compitition and is leading a league club."
Mitchell admits he is mature beyond his years. When Degenhardt wants to stir him up, she teases him about being "born old". He claims a fair-dinkum AFL player will have, whether they like it ir not, a compressed youth. "I felt like i went from 18 to 25 in about 18 months. Now i'm 25 i feel like i'm God know how old," he says. Maturity, he thinks, allows young people to become better players more quickly. He believes AFL teams should emphasise maturity when setting standards as much as they do commitment and discipline. It's easy to see why Donald McDonald, the straight-talking former Hawthorn assistant coach, describes Mitchell as a natural leader.
McDonald is one of Mitchell's biggest supporters. He coached him to a premiership and J.J. Liston Trophy at the Box Hill Hawks in the VFL.
He learned to be direct with Mitchell. "A good thing with Sammy is you can talk to him man to man," says McDonald. In round eight of the 2003 season, Mitchell was dropped. It was a shock. He figured his coach, Peter Schwab, was responcible. McDonald let him know otherwise.
He'd argued for Mitchell's demotion because the midfielder had failed the week before to pick up Kangaroo Anthony Stevens in a match the Hawks lost by 28 points. McDonald told his young charge that he had been selfish. He also told him to pull his head in, as he was getting ahead of himself. "I was like,'Oh my God'," says Mitchell. "I was shattered at the time. I went back to Box Hill, played one game and i was a far, far better player for that experience."
It could be his ability to handle feedback that sets Mitchell apart from the pack. It's not that he doesn't respond with the usual emotions; it's just that he learns from it.
Bohdan Babijczuk, the laid-back sports fitness guru now a Melbourne, noticed Mitchell was different from most when he took charge of improving his running in 2001. "Sam has an ego to some degree yet he had no ego when it come to getting the results he wanted," he says.
Babijczuk remembers taking the Hawks to train with and compete for Glenhuntly Athletics Club. At one meeting Mitchell was passed by a 13-year-old girl in a 1500-metre race. Most would be embarrased.
According to Babijczuk, it didn't deter Mitchell. He knew persistance was the only solution. Now, according to Babijczuk, Mitchell is transformed.
"Shane Crawford would have been a big influence," he says.
Mitchell is happy to admit that he chased Crawford from the moment he was drafted at the end of the 2001 season, after playing in Box Hill's VFL premiership team. Crawford was the best. Mitchell was last on the list. He decided that if he wanted to be better than Crawford, he needed to train harder than the 1999 Brownlow Medallist. "If i train like him then he's there and i'm here then i'll never bridge that gap.
So my philosophy is that you've got to train harder than anyone else to do that," he explains.
Sometimes he knows he has made a fool of himself. If a session included five runs, Mitchell would blow up after two sprints: his attempts to keep up with the skipper appearing idiotic to some.
Hawthorn's culture, he say's, was different to what it is now. Mitchell was heckled and called a brown nose. People would say, 'There's Mitch, 'Crawf' must be nearby'." Crawford recalls any banter as being light-hearted rather than anything malicious. Mitchell say's he ignored it. Both just kept going a top pace. "He (Crawford) probably got annoyed at me yapping at his heals all the time and asking a million questions but that what footy is all about - trying to improve."
When i asked Crawford if he remembers Sam annoying him, his response is quick. "He still does," he laughs. Then he speaks with admiration. "I noticed it. He had a real impact when he came down just by being so enthusiastic and doing everything, and more, to give himself achane to play. When we'd do competitive suff and match-play stuff, he'd always grab me. You knew he was going to run himself into the ground. So even when they just wanted you to get through the session, he was always pushing me to the limit because you don't like anyone getting the better of you."
Some people misread Mitchell's desire to be the best as arrogance.
Perhaps the high standards he sets for himself frightened people. He was already hungry to learn, his failure to be noticed in 2000 made him ravenous. He admits now he didn't realise at the time how shattered when no club even rookie-listed him in 2000. He won two consecutive Eastern Football League best and fairest awards as a junior with Mooroolbark Football Club, then two Eastern Ranges best and fairests in succession. He never got bitter, nor blamed anyone, but he hurt.
"It was no one's fault. If it was anyone's fault, it was my fault that i didn't impress the right people."
By the time he reached the AFL, he was acutely aware of his strengths and weaknesses: "I was very good at some things but i was terrible in other areas. I needed to work on that and i have been able to do that."
When he latched onto Crawford, he knew what he was doing: learning from the best. At times though he was too blunt. He would challange young players, telling them they were fortunate to be earning senior selection and needed to work harder. Even his supporters say sometimes he missed the mark. He reassessed his approach. He reads books on psychology in an effort to understand the different ways people respond. He had heart-to-heart conversations with those he trusted.He reflected on outcomes. "I still could get better," he says.
Those around him say he's learned quickly. His predecessor as captain, Richie Vandenburg, says Mitchell will be a very good communicator as skipper: "It's something that Sam has been able to understand over the past couple of years. He's a very articulate and smart bloke, so he'll be able to find the various styles required to deal with the guys individually."
Crawford says Mitchell has become a better person as he's settled into the club. "He's alot more approachable he's so focused on playing and playing well. Now he's giving more of himself and he's really developed. It's one of those reasons he's now our captain."
When you hear this story, you recognise Mitchell takes responcibility for his performance on and off the field. He doesn't tell you directly.
He allows his actions to speak for him.
The area that he's always excelled in is at the stoppages. Capable of orchestrating the flow of a game with his sublime ability to win the contested football, you don't need to seek out any clearance statistics to recognise it. When Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse compared Mitchell fabourably with dual Brownlow medallist and stoppage genius Greg Williams after a game in 2005, no one blinked. Crawford has no hesitation in naming Mitchell as the best inside player he has played with or seen. In the modern game it is the most valuable of skills. Coaches believe now that the best way to beat floods is to win stoppages. Rule changes limiting a ruckman's run-up means the football falls at their feet more often, buried under arm and legs waiting for midfielders to win it. Mitchell is ruthless when chasing it. "I think the game is all about intent," he says. "If you're ready to go after the footy, it doesn't matter if you're the closest or not the closest. If you mant it, the you're more likely to get it." In his fourth senior game he knocked his childhood idol - StKilda champion Robert Harvey - off the ball and won it himself. The siren went. Mitchell was left standing with the Sherrin in his hands. He stops mid-story as if to indicate the sudden burst of recognition he felt: "I thought: It's not always someone else'."
"He's actually the prototype physically," says Babijczuk. according to Babijczuk, the distance between Mitchell's elbow and wrist is shorter than most. These "short levers", as weightlifters describe such physical characteristics, allow him to quickly dish off the ball in tight. He worked hard to be able to exploit any natural advantage. He once met Williams - the introduction arranged by Simon Dalrymple, then a coach at the Eastern Ranges and now with the Western Bulldogs, who noticed the similarities between the two. Williams gave Mitchell some drills to work on. One included handballing and kicking to a friend on the move holding out an outstretched hand. Mitchell aimed to hit the still hand, developing precision in an area where many are happy with near enough. He'd practise to be perfect before training, or in the warm-up, or after training, his propensity to arrive at training an hour before anyone else well known. Powerful with natural balance, he's nearly impossible to knock off the ball. His reflexes are awesome, a trait he speculates may have come from his parents (his father Wayne raced group c touring cars in the 1970's as a privateer against Peter Brock and Allan Moffat while his mother is a theatre nurse. Both require skills with the hands).
Then there is his pace. Coaches in American Football like to distinguish between pace and quickness. They argue that most games of football are played in tight, confined spaces that require quick changes of direction. By that definition, Mitchell is quick, moving from acceleration to top speed like a slingshot. He has also become a better runner overall. "I'd probably appear slower than i might be, although you won't see me on Grand Final day winning the Grand Final sprint," he says. He knows he'll never be elite in that area, but he believes he is more rounded than he's sometimes given credit for. "I don't think you can play AFL footy purely as an inside player. It's probably a misconception of me," he says.
If anything, knowledge of his deficiencies has stopped Mitchell from cutting corners. As a 17-year-old, he began at 10am Sundays with John Bigelow, a running coach from Melbourne's eastern suburbs.
"Sam would never be there at 10 past, he'd be there at 10 sharp," says long-time friend, Ben Heenan. "Nothing has changed." This focus never left him. Just before Christmas, Mitchell recorded 2.96 seconds for a 20-metre sprint. The best time at last years AFL draft camp was 2.83 seconds for 20 metres recorded by David Gourdis (picked by Richmond in the pre-season draft).
A week after the interview, i'm reading a book Mitchell had mentioned in passing - Management Secrets of the New England Patriots - when a description of leadership jumps off the page: Great leaders, it read, "embody a paradoxical mix of persona humility and professional will. They are ambitious, to be sure, but ambitious first and foremost for the company, not themselves".
It's Mitchell's next challenge. He was co-vice captain (with Luke Hodge) for two seasons but the greater responsibility this year will force him to take a wider view. Vandenburg is tipping Mitchell will lead from the front, setting the example for others to follow. "He'll be very understanding and he;s also highly motivated and very driven. He'll expect very high standards of the playing group," he says. Crawford said the players had no hesitation in choosing Mitchell and Hodge captain and vice-captain. "He's focused on what we're trying to achieve and that is to win alot of games and become success," says Crawford.
Mitchell says Vandenburg has left agreat legacy, a structure and culture that makes being captain easier than it would have otherwise been. "The 'behind closed doors' part of my role has been very simple so far. Really it's just a maintenance role until the game comes and who knows what's going to happen then, i haven't done it before," he says.
Mitchell knows - like great bussiness entrepreneurs - you can never stop learning. He does not know all the answers, but will keep searching for ways for things to be done better. "You probably understand exactly where you're at for 20 per cent of the time," he says. "Sometimes you think you're going alright and you're not. Sometimes you think you're struggling and you're actually going OK," he muses.
But there is one thing he does know: "Always keep Tuesday night free for your girlfriend."
I typed this from AFL mag '4QUARTERS'
