Sam Mitchell returns to Box Hill Hawks as senior coach
Twenty years after making his senior debut with Box Hill Hawks and quickly rising to the AFL, the JJ Liston Trophy and Brownlow Medal champion has gone back to the VFL club as senior coach.
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Sam Mitchell arrived at Box Hill Hawks in 2001, a high-number hopeful recruited from the Eastern Ranges.
He started the year in the reserves. He finished it as second placegetter in the senior best and fairest, as equal-best finals player and a premiership player.
Pushed up by Box Hill Hawks coach Donald McDonald, Hawthorn drafted him and the following season he streaked away with the club best and fairest and the JJ Liston Trophy.
The Liston count is already part of league folklore: in 11 matches he polled 31 votes. That is, the umpires judged him best-afield in 10 games.
Twenty years after he joined Box Hill Hawks, Mitchell has been appointed their senior coach.
He’s part of the coaching panel at Hawthorn, where he forged a dazzling career after winning stacks of possessions and a few admiring eyes in the VFL.
Mitchell will be coaching in a competition that now names an award after him – the Fothergill-Round-Mitchell Medal, which recognises players to have done the Liston Trophy-Brownlow Medal – and that often over the years held him up as one of its success stories.
He won two under-age league medals and two best and fairests at Eastern Ranges but was overlooked in the AFL draft.
A season in the VFL was his ticket to top football.
“There is a little bit of a feeling of de ja vu,’’ Mitchell was saying yesterday afternoon of his return to the City Oval.
“Yeah, 2001 I went to Box Hill. I was going from a boy to a man. I’d played Under 18 footy but I’d never really played against men. I think I’d played one game against men. I went to a religious school and I was quite a sheltered kid, I guess. Playing at Box Hill with very good footballers … I remember in our (2001) premiership season we had Anthony Rock and Matthew Dent and Matthew Brewer, the captain who took me under his wing … I was fortunate to go into that successful team.
“It was a good period. A lot of our (Hawthorn) 2008 premiership players played in the Box Hill premiership in 2001, Michael Osborne, Chance Bateman, Robbie Campbell. We spent a lot of time together in our early years.’’
Mitchell has always appreciated the role Box Hill, McDonald and players like Brewer had in his rise in football.
“Donald was a fantastic coach … we still talk now … you can’t forget those people who help you on your journey along the way,’’ he said.
“Hopefully in 20 years someone will be saying it was Sam Mitchell who gave them a bit of belief and a little start when they needed it.’’
Mitchell sees similarities between the VFL of his time and the VFL of today.
The competition was revamped in 2000, taking in AFL reserves teams. It has been revamped again in 2020, taking in NEAFL clubs and swelling to 22 teams. It’s unlikely to be called the VFL next year.
“It’s at a similar stage to what it was, with a change of scenery, a change of dynamics,’’ Mitchell said.
But the Box Hill Hawks-Hawthorn alignment has been a constant of the past two decades.
It was among the first signed off for 2000 and it’s proved the most successful and enduring. Mitchell noted that a lot of Hawthorn players had developed at Box Hill, a number of Box Hill players had been drafted, and Box Hill had been a strong club, regularly playing finals.
“I think Hawthorn do it really well and so do Box Hill,’’ he said.
Having started his senior football in the VFL, Mitchell said he understood the importance of it and the opportunities it gave to young players. He hopes to make a few of them count at Box Hill.
Mitchell will combine his VFL coaching with his Hawthorn role as head of development. His brief is to work with Hawthorn’s first to fifth-year players.
“I was really keen to focus on development and make sure our young players come through and develop in a really strong manner,’’ he said.
“If you want to go from an 18-year-old who gets drafted and you want to become an A grade AFL player, there is a process that doesn’t happen overnight. You do need to train hard and work hard and have mentors and coaches who are helping you holistically. I would like to think I’m in a position now where I’ve been able to do that with a handful of players. We’re going into a development phase at Hawthorn where we’re trying to develop our talent as much as we can.’’
But for the next week or two most of his energy will be directed towards the Box Hill Hawks, and getting to know his players.
Mitchell said he was aware the Hawks put together a good list for the 2020 season that never was.
Damian Mascitti was appointed captain of what Mitchell called a “really exciting group’’.
“This appointment has only happened in the last couple of days so I haven’t made the phone calls I need to, to start building relationships,’’ he said.
“If I was being really honest I’ve got a list of names and numbers of people I’m excited to give a call to. I’ve got a busy time coming up touching base with a lot of important people.’’
* Former Box Hill president John Ure reports that after Mitchell’s stunning 2002 season, he played one match for the club in 2003 — and picked up three Liston votes!