Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell pleased with 'resilient' win

With AFL arriving in Launceston for the first time this season, the 0-2 Hawks were under plenty of pressure following their heavy 81-point defeat at the hands of the Sydney Swans, while the 2-0 Kangaroos were surpassing expectations following their nail-biting win in Western Australia against Fremantle.

Already missing co-captain Jye Simpkin through suspension, the visitors were dealt a major blow not long before the Saturday clash at UTAS Stadium, with gun ball-winning midfielder Luke Davies-Uniacke ruled out with calf soreness.

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Coach Alastair Clarkson was not too concerned about the inside-midfielder's injury, with the club merely taking precautions.

"He just got a corkie in his calf from last week's game that in most instances they settle," he said in the post-game press conference.

"He trained on Thursday but just with his warming up today, it just didn't feel right and he's an important player for us and we just don't want to take a risk with him.

"What's the point [of playing him], we're in this for the long game not the short game and it's tough when you've been best on ground the first two weeks of the season prior.

"In the end it was an easy call, let's not worry about it and see if we can get him up for next week."

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Paul Curtis kicked an early goal for the Roos but the Hawks were dominant for the majority of the third term.

Fergus Greene put the first on the board for the hosts with two more to come from Connor McDonald and Jai Newcombe to give themselves a 13-point quarter-time lead.

The Hawks' early control of the contest was signified by the difference in uncontested possessions, leading by more than 30 in that area buy the end of the first term.

Coach Sam Mitchell said after the game that he wanted the players to change their approach going forward due to their lack of size.

"Because we didn't have a significant amount of talls in our front half we thought we needed to keep them honest in their defence," he said.

"So if we could move the ball around a little bit, and we were able to do that and move the ball and get it inside 50 a little bit better than we have in the last couple weeks."

Despite the first two goals of the quarter coming the way of North Melbourne, it was Hawthorn who once again dominated the ball with their uncontested kick-mark approach.

They were able to hit the scoreboard too, with Tyler Brockman kicking two of his three goals in the second quarter to lead the side to a four-goal lead at the main break.

Mitchell spoke about the small-forward's successful return to the team after a long-term injury.

"I was wrapped for Brocky, he's such a lovable lad, he's got one of those infectious smiles," he said.

"He's telling me this morning that his daughters have been playing up a bit naughty overnight and keeping him up, so he was pretty happy to be away for the night in a hotel room to get a good 12-hour sleep.

"The thing with our forward line is, we're really looking for ways to score, we really struggled to score in the first two weeks."

Having laid just 16 tackles in the first half despite a lack of possession, the Roos came out in the third stanza with a point to prove.

Finding themselves trailing by 32 points, North Melbourne went on to kick the next five goals to bring the margin back to just three points.

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Clarkson was thrilled with how the side responded.

"The third quarter we give ourselves a chance to win the game," he said.

"We get halfway through the last quarter, I think we're within a goal, we had a really attacking forward 50 entrance that if we'd nailed the shot it might have put us in front but it didn't quite get there.

"That's the game though at the end of the day, the best side on the day won the game, but we're really pleased that we gave ourselves a chance."

In the end, Hawthorn's midfielders proved the difference as they took ascendancy at the stoppages and when Dylan Moore's snap recaptured a double-digit lead for the hosts, the agitated crowd blew a collective sigh of relief.

The final siren sounded not long after, with Hawthorn giving the Roos their first loss of the season by 19 points.

Following a brutal week for the brown and gold, Mitchell expressed his delight at how his players responded. "I'm really proud of the resilience of the group, not just across the two hours of the game, but across the week," he said.

"We had a tough week and people thought that we would perhaps never win a game ever again, so I think that the players deserve some reward for effort.

"Even across the game itself, certainly the third quarter, North Melbourne were able to control it for the majority and then I was really pleased even in the first part of the last quarter, we really missed a lot of opportunities.

"It would have been really easy to say 'It's too hard, it's not going to be our day', but they continued to play the right way and continued to do the things that we knew would get us the score that we needed to win."

Mitchell was especially pleased with the efforts of his midfield, who orchestrated the victory. "I think our midfield stoppage work was really important too, we won the clearances by a significant margin and we won contested possession by double digits," he said.

"I think we won the contest and when you win the contest, you're more likely to get to ball in your front half.

"I think the forward pressure and our intensity around the ball and that effort around tackling and second efforts was a step forward for us today."

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