Sam Mitchell - 300 Games

[Slax]

Absolute gun.

Anyone who can kick 50+m on both feet, finds the ball at will, makes the right decisions with the ball and creates space in tight contests is a champ.

Don't think I've ever seen him kick 50m, but then again players like Greg Williams couldn't kick 50m and it's not needed for clearance specialists like him.

 

[Slax]

What stats are you looking at exactly? Mitchell is 4th on the all time list for contested possessions.

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Would of loved to of seen how Greg Williams stacked up, but they never kept those stats when he was playing.

 

[HeHateMe]

Don't think I've ever seen him kick 50m, but then again players like Greg Williams couldn't kick 50m and it's not needed for clearance specialists like him.

 

[Lithium]

So? Are the the only games he's played against them? Over the journey he's been below his best against us.

Untwist your knickers mate.

Has Mitchell ever had a moment in his entire career like Goodes' goal on the run in the last quarter of the 2006 GF which caused opposition fans to collectively fill their dacks?

That's all I'm saying. It's not the definitive way to rank players - I never said it was - but just a personal observation.

closed-lined the **** out of Ablett in the 08 grand final.

 

[Xtreme]

closed-lined the **** out of Ablett in the 08 grand final.

Broke Fyfe's leg weeks after he originally corked him!

 

[underthestars]

Not as flashy as many champions but there's no midfielder in the last ten years I'd have in my team over him. Does more with his possessions than any one else without breaking a sweat. Just has the most superb awareness in the game.

 

[Leeda]

Has the time gone that quickly? I remember the start at the Hawks or Box Hill or something.

Doesn't look a day over 25..

 

[Bombermania]

I've always liked Mitchell, I agreed with this tweet

Titus O'Reily ‏@TitusOReily Jul 19
Sam Mitchell plays his 300th game this weekend and opposition coaches are just figuring out that he's worth tagging.


It is like he has been underrated yet he would be in the top ten Hawks of all time, some might say top five and he still played like a 28 year old.

 

[Bombermania]

the majority of Mitchell's possessions are uncontested as opposed to the players I named who are all closer to 50/50 disproves the narrative that he's the one winning hard ball at the bottom of the pack.

I think this says more about opposition sides than Mitchell, he is often under the pack or heavily involved but he is also smart in traffic to the point that he looks like he is always in the clear, great players create space and time, if you watch him live, you will notice that he doesn't need a lot of space to break free as he never stops running and keeps his feet.

 

[Jammer]

Best mid of the last decade ....

Does all the dirty work in close , gets hammered , doesn't sook ( unlike some haters in here )
Has a bit of prick in him, cannot be tackled insane diagonal ball movement to put team mate in space , longevity, big game player .

 

[Judd2Sewell]

I've always liked Mitchell, I agreed with this tweet

Titus O'Reily ‏@TitusOReily Jul 19
Sam Mitchell plays his 300th game this weekend and opposition coaches are just figuring out that he's worth tagging.


It is like he has been underrated yet he would be in the top ten Hawks of all time, some might say top five and he still played like a 28 year old.

He had been tagged for years, Titus has no idea. If anything coaches have given up tagging him.

 

[Bombermania]

He had been tagged for years, Titus has no idea. If anything coaches have given up tagging him.

It hasn't looked like it, but that is why he is such a great player, the ability to break the tag.

 

[Mr Meeseeks]

I find it funny that a tiny minority of Hawks fans were more than happy to turn Goodes' entire farewell season into a 6 month melt about his "extensive" history as a sniper but anyone who deigns to critique good guy Sam - even whilst acknowledging his brilliance - is told to gtfo by a tiny minority of hawks fans.

Dry your eyes boys.

FIFY

Stop using this thread to start a shit fight, you know what you're doing

 

[YippeeYiYeo]

Don't think I've ever seen him kick 50m, but then again players like Greg Williams couldn't kick 50m and it's not needed for clearance specialists like him.

2008 GF 4th quarter off a couple of steps kicks a goal from 50m with his left IIRC.

 

[Mr Meeseeks]

Gun player to state the obvious, but the kneeings are disgusting, I'm not talking about just Fyfe, blokes done it more than once.

Why even bother to post.

Like ****en moths to a flame

 

[Costanza_]

I wish he'd stop being so ****ing good, tears us up twice a year (+ finals) like clockwork. Unfathomable that a short, stumpy, near 34 yo can be as good as he still is.

Greg Williams reincarnated (not that he's dead) and there is not much higher praise than that. Utter champion

 

[Slax]

Having been to enough games at York Park I know that end is where the wind normally blows too and Launceston is pretty windy. Would of loved to of seen the flags.

 

[PendlePie]

He's also got a good sense of humour

Post needs the GIF of he and Hodge taking the piss out of Cotchin after Cotchin tried roughing them up (last season's game I believe before the opening bounce). Incredibly funny.

 

[HeHateMe]

Having been to enough games at York Park I know that end is where the wind normally blows too and Launceston is pretty windy. Would of loved to of seen the flags.

True and you where right to question the comment "can kick 50 of both". well he can kick it off his left but only 40-45 right.

But you asked so I just delivered. [emoji13]

Sent from my E6653 using Tapatalk

 

[Chuckie357]

67 goals in 299 games for a supposed elite midfielder.....should be better record than that! Maybe if he didn't spend his whole career accumulating easy possessions behind the play, his record might have been better

 

[Guardian Hawk]

He had been tagged for years, Titus has no idea. If anything coaches have given up tagging him.

Yep, exactly right.

After being in and out of the side in his first year (2002), Mitchell had his break out in 2003, leading the league in clearances and winning the Rising Star in a canter. He started 2004 brilliantly, picking up 58 disposals in the first 2 rounds.

As such, in Round 3, Kane Cornes picked up Mitchell, giving him first taste of an AFL tag. Mitchell has been first tagged at Hawthorn ever since, with the brief exception of the back end of 2010 when Hodge got first tag after a stellar season.

Mitchell struggled to deal with the tag effectively in 2004 but by 2005 had adapted and averaged over 26 disposals in a woeful team before a season ending injury in Round 15.

He was routinely tagged from then on but was too good, winning a B&F in 2006, 4th in Brownlow in '07, premiership captain in '08, B&F in '09, etc, etc.

He was beaten by the tagger only a handful of times over these years, once or twice by Brett Kirk early on, Kane Cornes and Cameron Ling.

Then, once Ling retired, teams tried tagging Mitchell (including Geelong trying Taylor Hunt) but Mitchell was at his zenith and they were having essentially no effect. Note, Crowley did beat him once (GF, 2013) as did Kane Cornes once (Rnd 4, 2015). Other than that, Mitchell still got 30+ disposals every even with taggers, including Crowley, et. al.

So, over the last season or two, coaches starting backing their midfields to win head to head instead of wasting a player on a negating role that wasn't having an effect.

People started asking "Why don't coaches tag Mitchell?", having forgotten the history above.

Then, Horse gave Tom Mitchell the job in Round 9 and it worked, restricting Mitchell to 15 touches, his lowest output since 2013. Whether that was because T.Mitchell was brilliant or Sam had grown unaccustomed to a tag or simply because one of Sam's good mates at the club was diagnosed with aggressive cancer that week, nobody knows.

But, suddenly every coach is going the hard tag on Mitchell again, having had M.Robinson, K.Mitchell, M.Barlow, T.Mitchell again, etc. all sit on him since. Problem is, Mitchell has averaged 30 disposals in that time and been in the best 3-5 players on the ground every week despite those hard tags.

 

[beta_condition]

67 goals in 299 games for a supposed elite midfielder.....should be better record than that! Maybe if he didn't spend his whole career accumulating easy possessions behind the play, his record might have been better

Second most clearances of all time and 4th most contested possessions, yea had a lucky ride with a talented team.

 

[Bokonon]

Congratulations to Sam Mitchell, any other club would be damn lucky to have him.

 

[cryptor]

Note, Crowley did beat him once (GF, 2013)

Good post but I disagree with this one part. The stats and Mitchell's generally preferred style of play being prevented might suggest that he was beaten. But in fact this performance by Mitchell actually goes to show why he is such a dangerous player. He has a huge footy IQ.

He used the fact that Ross Lyon and Crowley were so keen to shut him down to Hawthorn's advantage by leading Crowley into the drop zone that Sandilands was tapping into, thus preventing the Freo mids from dominating the clearances by winning clean ball. A tactic that he implemented all game and in such a close GF it could be argued was the difference between winning and losing.

 

[Guardian Hawk]

Good post but I disagree with this one part. The stats and Mitchell's generally preferred style of play being prevented might suggest that he was beaten. But in fact this performance by Mitchell actually goes to show why he is such a dangerous player. He has a huge footy IQ.

He used the fact that Ross Lyon and Crowley were so keen to shut him down to Hawthorn's advantage by leading Crowley into the drop zone that Sandilands was tapping into, thus preventing the Freo mids from dominating the clearances by winning clean ball. A tactic that he implemented all game and in such a close GF it could be argued was the difference between winning and losing.

Fair enough. Clarko did say he asked Mitchell to sacrifice his game for the good of the team as well. Not sure sometimes how much some of this kind of thing is revisioninst by fans like us though, like when people said Franklin 'shut down' Scarlett's drive in the '08 GF (I didn't see Buddy do anything differently, just had a quieter game than usual).