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Important SN update for SouthlandThe “unusual stats” uncovered by the Hawks
Andrew Slevison • June 28th, 2025 1:00 pm
Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell says he uncovered some “unusual” statistics during the week off.
The Hawks enjoyed their bye in Round 15 on the back of a hard-fought, low-scoring, come-from-behind three-point win over Adelaide in Launceston the weekend prior.
At stages earlier in the season, the Hawks played some irrepressible football which led them to a 7-2 record before they copped three defeats on the trot.
They somewhat recorrected with back-to-back victories before the break but that did not stop them from searching for answers.
Mitchell admits what they found will be taken into account with how they play for the remainder of the season, starting with North Melbourne at UTAS Stadium on Saturday.
“We’ve got a couple of unusual stats. You get a bit of extra time to really delve into it (over the bye round),” Mitchell said on SEN’s Fireball.
“For the real ‘ballers’ who want to know all the stats - we’re the best in the competition at stopping a team going from their defensive 50 to their forward 50.
“But we’re the worst at stopping them score once they do get through. So we’re probably over-resourcing our front half of the ground on defence.
“There’s a couple of things around that that we’ll try to sort out in the second half of the year.”
When asked to dumb it down for the listeners, Mitchell had a succinct response.
“We’re very good at stopping them getting through us, but when they do get through they score every time,” he said.
He says that as a result the Hawks will reconsider how they defend, which hopefully unlocks a heavier scoring style even if it isn’t all that pleasing on the eye.
“So there’s a bit of a challenge with how we defend the field. You’d rather be top four in both than first in one and 18th in the other,” Mitchell continued.
“Offensively we haven’t probably hit our straps. We’re in Tassie for the next few and we’ve got a game in Perth and a game in Adelaide over the next five or six weeks, so we’re looking to make sure that we can put some scores on the board.
“We might not play beautiful footy for this next little period.”
Hawthorn’s attack will be boosted by the impending return of Mitch Lewis in the coming weeks.
The 26-year-old key forward, who has not played since Round 17 last year after suffering an ACL injury, will suit up for Box Hill against North Melbourne in the VFL on Saturday which has Mitchell excited.
“He’ll play 70 minutes over three quarters and bench up in the last,” Mitchell said.
“We’re very excited to get him back. He cut his hair, he’s looking sharp.
“At training (on Thursday) nobody would kick it to anyone except him just trying to get his confidence up. He was looking pretty sharp to be honest. I’m looking forward to seeing him get back.”
The Hawks reserves kick off at 12:05pm from Arden Street on Saturday before the AFL side clashes with the Roos from 4:15pm AEST.
