Why North Queensland coach Todd Payten was in Hawthorn’s coaches box with Sam Mitchell

Sam Mitchell has revealed he’s been trading industry secrects with a coach from the AFL’s rival code. See why there was some NRL flavour in Hawthorn’s box on Thursday night.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wasn’t the only famous face spotted in the Hawthorn camp in Thursday night’s clash against the Western Bulldogs.

Eagle-eyed NRL fans spotted North Queensland Cowboys coach Todd Payten inside Hawthorn’s coaching box for the match with Hawks coach Sam Mitchell revealing the pair have been trading industry secrets.

“Todd and I have struck up a bit of a relationship, we spent some time together in the pre-season, I went and looked in their coaches box,” he said after the win over the Western Bulldogs.

“They had a practice game against Storm in their pre-season down at Casey and I just shadowed him for a day and just learned about how they go about things, what you can learn from other codes, and they’ve got the Storm tomorrow (Friday) night.

Cowboys coach Todd Payten was in the Hawthorn box on Thursday. Picture: Getty Images

Sam Mitchell with Anthony Albanese after the game. Picture: Getty Images

“So (I) had him along and he came in the coaches box and was part of the preparation for the game and those things.”

Hawthorn had been heavily criticised for its tackling intent in the past two weeks, having laid a combined 74 tackles against Brisbane and Collingwood.

Mitchell joked that he used the Cowboys coach as inspiration in the lead up to the match.

“I picked him (Payten) up on the way there and my wife (Lyndal) said ’man, he’s scary, he’s going to make sure the boys tackle isn’t he,’” Mitchell said with a laugh.

“It was actually a great call, so I used that, I said (to the boys) ‘tackle boys otherwise Todd is going to tackle you’ so they all tackled a fair bit better.”

While the Hawks flipped the script with 81 against the Bulldogs, Mitchell said Payten was just a match-day attendee and didn’t fix his side’s tackling woes but was keen to hear his feedback.

“It was interesting, I’m looking forward to chatting with him about what he learned, but more importantly for me, what he thinks we could improve on, how we can do things better.

“He’s got a fairly different demeanour to what I have, so learning from him is something that I have taken a lot of growth in my coaching from Todd and looking forward to hearing what he thought about tonight.”

Originally published as Why North Queensland coach Todd Payten was in Hawthorn’s coaches box with Sam Mitchell