17 April 2024, Regency Ballroom, Melbourne, Australia
[Congrats] to all the inductees tonight, a special mention to the Chief [Jason Dunstall was announced as an AFL Legend the same week] Well done. We all thought you were already a legend. So well done Jase.
Luke Hodge, obviously not speaking about Luke, but when he first arrived the Hawthorn, we needed him to be our saviour. There was a lot of pressure on him and he was our saviour. He was incredible. So good on your Hodgey.
Allan Jeans, he once babysat my mum. He was friends with my grandma and he gave me the best advice I've ever received. I’d just started training at Hawthorn, and we finished a skills session and I went over to Mr. Jeans and I said, how did I go?' And without taking a breath, he said, 'you don't train hard enough. When the balls come out, you go flat out. Darrin Pritchard, Tony Hall, they run through the ball. You need to do that.' And I thought, shit. I thought I trained hard. So that was the best advice I've ever had. So it's great that he's been inducted as a Legend.
Sam Mitchell. Okay, I'll be nice.
Sam Mitchell has always been doubted, even when he finally got himself drafted, there were always concerns and doubts and question marks. Is his endurance good enough? Is he quick enough? Can he play on both sides of his body? Is he tall enough? (He's not very tall. He's got a long torso and short little legs and looks a little like a little ball. But, that's as mean as I'm going to go. He's a little unusual and [to Mitchell] your head's probably too big for your body anyway.)
So anyway, he was doubted. There were lots of question marks. And the great David Parkin, and I'm pumped to be sitting next to David tonight, he gave Sam some wonderful advice when he started out, he said, 'You're very good at winning the ball. Don't be good. Be great.'
And guess what? Sam took that on straight away. He went to work on his strengths and he turned himself into one of the all time greats, especially when it comes to contested footy. And you've got to remember, he was tagged every game. And that's back when taggers were able to harass you, manhandle you and abuse you. Sam took it all in his stride. So much so that there were games when we played and Sam wasn't tagged, he used to come up to me and he used to crack the shits. He was offended the opposition weren't tagging him! He actually didn't know how to play without an opponent. That's how often he was tagged.
Sam had an unbelievable appetite for the game. He worked his butt off. He was so professional. A wonderful attitude. Amazing belief. Even when times were tough, it just made him more determined. He had so much courage. Courage to put his body on the line, courage to put his head over the ball. Courage to tell you what he thought, even though his teammates didn't appreciate it a lot of the times. Sam was always grabbing the ruckman after training and doing ball-ups and throw-ins nonstop. He was working at his craft.
Every pre-season, Sam would come at the end of endurance runs in the midfield group, which was good for some of the midfielders because they knew that they probably weren't going to come last. But, I always say that if you had a football and you took on Sam Mitchell one-on-one, no matter who you are, he would win eighty out of a hundred times.
Even if he was fatigued, he'd still find a way. Mental strength. I've never seen anything like it. I loved playing with Sam. You always knew what you were going to get. He was so reliable, so consistent. He was so good. He trained so much on the opposite side of the body that the coaches had to demand that he start kicking on his good side of the body.
There was nothing better than quick discussions in the middle of the MCG after kicking a goal. And this is sort of how it went, and this was later in my career when I had retired from winning the hard ball, and we would quickly talk to the ruckman. I would be in there with Sam and we'd go, ‘Okay, this is what's going to happen. Ruckman, you hit it to Sam. Sam, you take on three or four opponents and I'll be doing a fly by at nine o'clock or three o'clock and kick the ball into the forward line.' And sure enough, Sam would beat all the opposition, I would do a fly by, I actually felt like Tom Cruise from Top Gun. The ball would be handed on a platter and I would kick the ball inside.50.
Footy was fun. Sam made it fun.
Grand final 2008. Great day. [applause] That's what I'm talking about!. It was half time. It was hot. We were all sitting in the rooms trying to catch our breath. No one was making any noise. And all we heard from Clarko's rooms, the coaches' rooms, was someone absolutely copping it like I've never heard before. Deep down I was laughing, that it wasn't me. And it just happened to be Mitch. And I do remember talking to Luke Hodge at the time saying, 'we need to get around him. We need to get him going for the second half.' When Mitch came out of the rooms, I locked eyes on him and I said, 'that seemed to go well.'
But what did he do? He didn't put up a white flag. He put up a premiership flag. His second half was magnificent. He dominated. He got away from his tagger, Cameron Ling, the mighty Geelong player he was. He kicked a goal. He turned himself not into a premiership player, but also a premiership captain. It was incredible. And that's what Sam was all about. When the times were tough, he'd find a way. He'd just find a way.
So I'm looking forward to coming back in a few years time to induct you as a Legend, after you coach the Hawks to your very first premiership as coach. But I’m not getting ahead of myself tonight, it gives me great honour to induct the great Sam Mitchell into the Hawthorn Hall of Fame. Good on you Sam.