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Find your Sport Nation frequencyLyon: Why Sam Mitchell will be loving Hawthorn's Darwin challenge
Jaiden Sciberras • May 15th, 2025 4:24 pm
Hawthorn faces an almighty challenge in Round 10, facing the in-form Gold Coast Suns in Darwin to open Sir Doug Nicholls Round on Thursday night.
The Suns in Darwin presents itself as one of the most difficult games on the AFL calendar, having won all of their last seven contests at TIO Stadium following Round 9’s impressive 10-point win over the Bulldogs.
Beyond the fixture, the Hawks had the unfortunate task of shifting the side that took down the Demons last Sunday, forced into five changes that see both forwards Luke Breust and Jack Gunston missing the clash, alongside ruckman Lloyd Meek.
Despite the changes, SEN’s Tim Watson believes that this contest will prove just how strong of a list coach Sam Mitchell has at his disposal, convinced that the side will remain confident ahead of tonight's clash.
“When you look at their changes, it goes to the heart of their depth,” Watson told SEN Breakfast.
“They’ve got very good depth there at Hawthorn. I know we keep talking about the fact that they still need that key forward, but they’ve got Calsher Dear, he’s going to be a long-range player by the look of him.
“The conversation around this was maybe Hawthorn have just given up on this game. They know they’re going up there (to Darwin), it’s a hard game to win against the Suns who are in pretty good form at the moment.
“I don’t think that’s the attitude they’re taking up north.”
Co-host Garry Lyon doubled down on the Hawks’ preparation, full of belief that Mitchell will flourish given the challenge ahead.
“I think they love it,” Lyon said.
“I think this is right in the Sam Mitchell wheelhouse in terms of the way he prepares his team.
“The conversation that he had last week at three quarter time, he spoke to the players, he said ‘I’m bored. I’m bored with the way you’re playing’. I think they were a point ahead at this stage against Melbourne, it was a pretty ordinary game up to that point and he just said it.
“‘Get some excitement in your game’, and they went on and banged six or seven goals and gave the Demons a belting in the last quarter.
“He knows his playing group so well, he knows which levers to pull, which buttons to push, and he’ll be pushing them all.
“This team has won seven in a row up here, they say they’re unbeatable, let’s try to take that off them.”
The first bounce is set for Thursday at 7:30pm AEST, with the two top-four sides battling out to remain in touching distance with the top spot.
