Hawks out to use long AFL break to their advantage

Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell is embracing an extended early-season break as a chance to improve, rather than worrying about any halt in his side’s momentum.

Thrashed by GWS in their season-opener, the Hawks have got their campaign back on track with victory over Essendon and a hard-fought 14.15 (99) to 13.4 (82) win over Sydney on Thursday night.

Now they face an 18-day lay-off, with a bye followed by the traditional Easter Monday blockbuster against Geelong.

“If we can sustain the type of pressure and intensity that we got tonight, we’ll be a really hard side to beat,” Mitchell said after the Hawks’ latest triumph.

“But if we drop off, we don’t have to look too far in our rear-view mirror to realise how vulnerable we can be.

“Nothing’s clearer to the players than that exact thing.

“We go into a bit of a break now at 2-1 and we can reassess and make some improvements to our game.”

Mitchell isn’t overly concerned about the unusual lay-off, insisting his club relishes the responsibility of playing Thursday night games and the stand-alone Easter Monday clash.

“We love both of those fixtures,” he said.

“For us, we get a bit of a chance to reassess going into a couple of days off for our players.

“We’ll try to improve a couple of things and we’ll be ready for Easter Monday.”

Mitchell highlighted scoring when the ball is locked in Hawthorn’s front half as one key area to work on.

One player who isn’t having much trouble scoring is Jack Gunston, who added another four goals to his tally against Sydney.

Gunston’s hot form across the opening rounds prompted Melbourne great, now media commentator, Garry Lyon to suggest the 34-year-old could kick a century of goals this season.

“It sounds good to me. I hope he can do that,” Mitchell grinned.

“He keeps telling us that he’s going to try, so good luck to him.

“It’s going to be hard if he keeps kicking 4.4 though. He’ll need to kick eight or at least seven out of that.”

Former Hawthorn and Sydney star Lance Franklin was the most recent player to kick 100 goals in a season, as a teammate of Mitchell in the Hawks’ 2008 premiership campaign.