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So it turns out Sam Mitchell gives opponents corkies, kind of a lot.
The Hawks ex-captain was fined $1000 by the Match Review Panel for his knee on Fremantle star Nat Fyfe during their 72-point win in Launceston on Sunday.
As the two players collided in a contest, Mitchell appeared to bring his knee up into Fyfe’s thigh, forcing the Brownlow favourite off the field for treatment.
The incident raised eyebrows due to a similar clash with Taylor Walker in round 12, which the Hawks won 118-45.
As the Adelaide skipper put a bump on to shepherd Mitchell from Rory Sloane, the Hawks half-back again brought his knee up, striking Walker in the hip and forcing him to be subbed out of the game.
Fox Footy’s AFL 360 dug deeper into the vault last night to produce footage of an off-the-ball incident where Mitchell appears to run full pace past Giants prize recruit Ryan Griffen, kneeing him in the thigh on his way through.
When viewed in isolation, the Fyfe and Walker clashes are certainly questionable, but perhaps able to be explained away by the exigencies of fast-paced, modern football.
The addition of the Griffen corky, which appears to be unprovoked and indefensible act, gives more credence to the argument that this might be a pattern of behaviour – or deliberate sniping tactic to take out opposition’s most dangerous players.
Given Mitchell was the posterboy of the “unsociable” Hawks in 2008, it’s no surprise that there’s been intense scrutiny of the Hawk’s actions.
Did Sam Mitchell learn a thing or two from this bloke?
For his part, Mitchell told Hawks TV,
“I looked at the vision that the MRP look at and I can understand why it’s not a good look and it’s not a good thing for the game,”
“Although it’s not my intention in that situation to hurt the other person, it’s purely just to protect myself.”
The 32 year old said he was willing to change his technique in off-the-ball contests,
“I guess the game has given me the feedback that I need to change the way that I go about doing that and the mechanism I use to protect myself,” he said.
Mitchell’s defence that it’s merely an issue of technique has run a bit hollow with some members of the AFL media.
Leigh Matthews could understand where Mitchell was coming from, but wasn’t fully buying his excuse,
“Normally when contact comes you kind of turn your body, but in these both occasions his arms were in front of himself and his knee went forward, that’s the way he protected himself.
But I don’t think you’re allowed to protect yourself with your knee up.”
On AFL 360, Mark Robinson was more scathing,
“It’s not about technique. I’m sorry Sam, after three times I’m starting to believe that you’re deliberately doing that,” he said on Tuesday night.
“It’s not about a protection mechanism, it’s about hurting your opposition and it absolutely has to stop.”
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