AFL 2024: Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell has blasted a racist remark made towards one of his players

Sam Mitchell should have been enjoying Hawthorn’s big win over Adelaide on Saturday afternoon. Instead, he used his post-match press conference to call out more racial abuse on social media.

Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell has blasted a racist remark made towards one of his players following his side’s 27-point win over Adelaide on Saturday afternoon.

Mitchell opened his press conference calling out the racism that came from social media.

He said he wouldn’t be interested in having a Hawks fan as part of the club if they had any form of racism in them.

“I love footy and I love our game and I think the position we have as leaders of the community – we need to do the best job we possibly can around discrimination,” he said.

“We got some stuff that I don’t want to go into but I just want to put it out there that if you have any form of racism in you as a Hawthorn person, we are not interested in having you as part of the club.

“While we are all enjoying a fantastic win and we should all be enjoying it, unfortunately some parts of our Hawthorn family can’t enjoy it because of what heroes on their keyboards think that they are capable of doing.

“And anyone of those who ever wears brown and gold, we don’t want you.”

Sam Mitchell on Saturday. Picture: Morgan Hancock/AFL Photos/via Getty Images

It comes after a dominant performance from the Hawks who scored their first win of the season at the MCG in front of 36,086 fans.

Mitchell thought it was important he added to the voices calling for an end to racism including Eddie Betts who he mentioned released a video recently about the cause.

Mitchell also said he spoke to players involved in the situation after the match and made the decision to call out the impactful social media acts.

“Before I came in, I spoke to some people involved and said ’is this something you want me (to talk about publicy)’ because I only want to help people who are affected by it themselves.

“And when they are affected, all I can do is support them in any way that I have the power to do.

“And the power of the press conference, ‘do you want me to support that or does it make it worse’ and the comment was I think we need to show as much support as we can’.”

Mitchell didn’t go into detail about the individual involved but mentioned it was “absolutely ridiculous”.

“You see the amount of effort that goes into every single thing that these guys do on the field, every player that is playing just leaves so much of their life in a football sense and for that to be called out because of how they look is just honestly absolutely ridiculous,” he said.

Originally published as AFL 2024: Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell has blasted a racist remark made towards one of his players