AFL Round 1 live coverage: Recap all the Saturday action

ALASTAIR Clarkson has hailed Tom Mitchell’s “first class” 54-disposal game against Collingwood even though the Hawks coach would like to see other midfielders step up.

HAWTHORN coach Alastair Clarkson says he would like to see other midfielders step up but has hailed Tom Mitchell’s 54-disposal game against Collingwood a “first class” performance.

Mitchell had 17 touches in the final term to set a new AFL record, made up of 20 kicks and 34 handballs. While Clarkson had high praise for Mitchell’s game he said it was not exactly how he wanted his midfield functioning. MIGHTY MITCHELL: UGLY DEJA VU FOR BUCKS, PIES WINNING START: WILD WEATHER CAN’T DAMPEN SUNS STEVEN STUNNER: DO THE SAINTS STILL HAVE NO A-GRADERS? “He’s got very, very quick reaction time to hunt the ball and he played a first class game but having said that to be fair we’d prefer he wasn’t getting 50 touches,” Clarkson said. “We’d prefer if it was shared amongst more players but how can you tell a bloke not to go and get the footy. He was outstanding in terms of endeavour tonight. “If we’re going to become a better midfield I think we need to share that load through that part of the ground. “A bloke getting 50 touches doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to win the game. There’ll be times likes last year for us where it didn’t equate to a victory for us.” Jaeger O’Meara also impressed for the Hawks with 27 disposals, his knee problems of last year looking a thing of the past as he exploded with pace from stoppages. “He’s got through the summer without a hitch in terms of his conditioning,” Clarkson said. “That was a feature of his first couple of years at Gold Coast, his ability to cover ground and get out of stoppage really, really quickly and we’ve seen that over the course of the summer and so it’s just a matter to transfer that into games now.” Clarkson said it was a “typical Round 1 game”, with fumbles, errors and players tiring late but it was something to build on for his side, which finished 12th with 10 wins last season. Ryan Burton rolled his left ankle in the second quarter, Clarkson saying he would be assessed during the week but was in some doubt given he was unable to return to the ground. SATURDAY’S RESULTS St Kilda 107 def Brisbane 82 Port Adelaide 110 def Fremantle 60 Gold Coast 55 def North Melbourne 39 Hawthorn 101 def Collingwood 67 RECAP ALL THE ACTION IN THE BLOG BELOW

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