If Hawthorn lose to a struggling Richmond outfit they don’t deserve to make the AFL finals, says coach Sam Mitchell.
The Hawks are on the cusp of their first finals appearance since 2018 after posting a comprehensive 74-point win over injury-hit Carlton last Sunday.
Competition strugglers Richmond (2-19) and North Melbourne (3-18) stand in the Hawks’ way in the final two rounds of the home-and-away season.
On paper, the Hawks should beat the Tigers at the MCG on Sunday, but Mitchell won’t let his team be fooled into complacency.
“We’ve been there. We’ve been exactly where Richmond are not too long ago (after starting the season 0-5),” Mitchell said on Wednesday.
“We know that they’ll go into this game believing that their best is going to really challenge us and can get them a win.
“Now the challenge is, in a game that most people would expect us to win, can we continue to perform the things that have got us to this point?
“And if we can’t, then we don’t deserve to be there anyway.”
The spotlight has been on young star Will Day’s lean form in recent weeks, with the midfielder collecting only 26 disposals across the past two matches against Carlton and GWS – far below his average of 22 disposals a game.
But Mitchell insists the club won’t be giving Day a rest.
“He’s been sat on pretty tightly the last two weeks. He’s carried a heavy workload for us for the majority of the season, but we’re not looking at resting players,” the coach said.
“We’re definitely far from that state of mind. This is a final for us.
“We lose this game, our season is as good as over.
“Will’s been enormously consistent for us and he was a bit more selfless on the weekend.”
Fellow midfielder Changkuoth Jiath could be available for selection this week after missing out on the Carlton clash with calf soreness.
“He probably was OK to play last week. He just had a bit of a tight calf,” Mitchell said.
“As long as that clears up then Changkuoth will be available to play, and we’ll see what we do later in the week with him.
“He’s a really important player for us. We want to make sure that we don’t put him at risk.”
