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The Live Sport Bible is here!"Cameras are always on": Mitchell explains coaching box spray
SEN • June 5th, 2026 11:53 am
Sam Mitchell admits his explosive reaction caught on camera in the coaching box during his side’s thrilling win over Adelaide last month was “not his greatest look”.
After Nick Watson scored the Hawks’ third goal of the clash during the second quarter, cameras panned to a furious looking Mitchell who was giving orders down a phoneline.
After the match he said he didn’t feel his side were living up to the pre-match expectations.
Mitchell explained to SEN Fireball that he and his coaching team have since reviewed the footage and audio, and they hold themselves to account just as much as the players.
“We do review the coaches’ box and the audio of it,” he said. “It gets coded up and cut up, we listen to things from the game that we coached well and other areas where we weren’t at our best. I have been a bit angry, I need to remember the cameras are always on.
“When you saw my body language and the score together, it wasn’t my greatest moment, I will be honest.
“I probably have been a bit more on edge the last six weeks for a variety of reasons but for the most part, the thing that gets to me is messages get out and they’re not executed.
“If we are playing poorly or there’s skill errors, I’m actually fine with it, it’s when we’re trying to make a change, that’s when my frustrations seems gets the better of me and I’ve had solid feedback from the other coaches.”
In that same match, Watson had a goal disallowed after he had been adjudged to have run off his line during his set shot.
The Hawks small forward nailed a set shot after the half-time siren at Marvel Stadium and while the decision had little impact on the game, as the Hawks won by 52 points, it attracted the ire of many experts including Kane who labelled it the “dumbest” and “most ridiculous” decision of the year.
Mitchell said he was equally baffled by the decision but was not losing any sleep over it.
“I’m still not 100% clear on the rule,” he said. “To be honest, I move on pretty quick. I don’t think it’s an umpiring issue, it’s a rule issue.
“They should make sense and this one doesn’t make a lot of sense. But I’m not losing sleep over it right now.”
Hawthorn continue to challenge the norm in the AFL and the use of artificial intelligence in their matchday planning and strategic decisions is one many have been curious about.
Asked to lift the lid on how the club was approaching the platform and educating people to its advantages, Mitchell said: “We encourage staff to use it."
“It can flag a lot of things. We have enormous amounts of stats and in the six minutes you have to talk to players in the break, it’s hard to know what to tell them.
“AI helps accelerate that process so when you talk to players you can do so with a bit more clarity. It needs that usable impact which is what we’re trying to focus on. We want to make sure we’re not falling behind.
“The game can look reasonably similar to the naked eye, so AI give us something to look at that we might have missed.”
