Sam Mitchell is looking forward to the next phase of his football career after trade to West Coast

SAM Mitchell is looking forward to the next phase of football career as well as assistant coaching pathway after agreeing to move to West Coast.

SAM Mitchell is looking forward to the next phase of football career as well as assistant coaching pathway after agreeing to move to West Coast in one of the biggest shocks of an already frantic AFL trade period.

The 34-year-old four-time premiership player officially became an Eagle today after both Hawthorn and West Coast agreed to a reshuffling of draft picks (52 and 54, 70 and 72) as well as the on-passing of pick 88 to the Hawks.

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While acknowledging surprise at how it transpired with coach Alastair Clarkson approaching him on Brownlow Medal day about a possible win-win trade, Mitchell said today he was eagerly looking forward to contributing to the Eagles in 2017 and beyond.

Sam Mitchell is now a West Coast player. Picture: Michael Klein

“We knew it would be hugely sensitive and a big shock obviously, so we wanted to keep the circle very small,” Mitchell said of the trade that caught everywhere off guard.

“If I had sat it there and then (not wanted it), it would have gone no further. If I had’ve said no, it would have been over in five minutes.”

Mitchell was traded to West Coast along with pick Nos. 54 and 72 in exchange for pick Nos. 52, 70 and 88.

Once the trade was official, Hawks captain Luke Hodge texted his now former teammate asking the question that had been on everyone’s lips: “I quickly got a text from Hodgey that said ‘Did you just get traded for pick 88?’

READ GLENN McFARLANE EXCLSUIVE INTERVIEW WITH SAM MITCHELL ABOUT THE CONVERSATIONS WITH ALASTAIR CLARKSON THAT RESULTED IN HIS MOVE TO WEST COAST IN SATURDAY’S HERALD SUN

“I guess I’m going backwards, I started at pick 36 and I ended up at pick 88,” he joked on SEN. “So who knows where I’ll be next.

“I’m very happy the move has gone through.”

Hawthorn loss boss Graham Wright, who orchestrated the deal with his West Coast counterpart, said it’s a sad day for Hawthorn as a champion of the club departs.

“For a lot of us it’s a sad day, certainly a lot of Hawthorn supporters and even us in here it’s a sad day but we’ve got an extremely happy player who is very keen to move on with the rest of his life and his future and this has been discussed for about 18 months with Sam potential going there as a coach after his playing days were finished but obviously it’s been pushed forward,” Wright said..

“No, (not about freeing up salary cap space) it’s about his future. Absolutely.

“Sam was keen and very keen in the end. We initiated the conversation, in the end we felt we needed to facilitate the trade on the basis that Sam was so keen to have this done.”

West Coast tweeted this picture to welcome Mitchell to the club. Picture: Twitter

Already digitally altered images of Mitchell in his new club’s guernsey have appeared online and the star 34-year-old says it’s taking some getting used to.

“It was certainly a bit unusual but exciting by the same token,” Mitchell said.

“I think everyone has said to me ‘Gee it happened quick’ but when it’s actually happening it feels like it takes forever.

“Once I thought it was going to happen I just wanted it to happen the first minute of (trade) week.”

Mitchell has been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support he’s received since the news broke on Wednesday, fielding phone calls and text messages from Hawthorn people.

He even received a phone call from a teary-eyed former Hawks president Ian Dicker.

“I’m glad it’s being taken in the right manner and I’ve been able to come out with my head held high I think at this point,” he said.

“I’ve received lost of text messages from fans that I’ve been associated with for such a long period saying ‘I’m disappointed’ or ‘I’m sad.

“Ian Dicker rang me in tears saying ‘I can’t understand this but I’m sure I’ll understand it in some time’.

“There’s so many people associated with your footy club that you don’t realise, until you’re in this situation, that you’ve meant a lot to.”

Mitchell says he was unaware of the potential trade of fellow four-time premiership player Jordan Lewis while he was having conversations with Clarkson about his own future.

“The first I heard of it was I got a text message from a reporter asking me to confirm and I said it’s genuinely the first I’d heard of it,” Mitchell said.

“In a few hours of that I was reading it in the paper like everyone else.

“I had absolutely no inkling of any other stuff and to be honest, because I’ve been one foot out of Hawthorn for a couple of weeks I’d be the last person that would know anything about it.”

Originally published as Sam Mitchell is looking forward to the next phase of his football career after trade to West Coast