Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell was rapt with the performances of Connor Macdonald and Dylan Moore on Friday night in “abnormal” circumstances after it was revealed the pair were locked up in America over the off-season.

McDonald and Moore were arrested, charged and jailed for criminal trespass in Arizona after they were discovered by police standing on a scissor lift more than two metres off the ground.

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The story became public this week, but the heightened attention certainly didn’t affect either player as they both played starring roles in the Hawks’ crushing 62-point win over the hapless Bombers at the MCG.

“I was really pleased with the lads. Obviously, it’s been a massive week for them on an individual basis,” Mitchell said.

“If we forget what’s actually happened just for a second … you’ve just got two young men who are on the front and back page of the papers.

“There’s been a lot of eyeballs on them, a lot of self-consciousness about how they’ve gone about it, a lot of explaining to do, and so to be able to perform at a high level with all of that around you, I’m proud that they were able to do that.”

Moore starred with a game-high 13 score involvements to go with 24 disposals and a major, while Macdonald booted two goals from 24 possessions and had 12 score involvements himself.

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After slamming his team’s work rate in their season-opening loss to GWS last week, Mitchell was pleased with the response he got as his players torched Essendon in transition and on turnover.

The Hawks more than tripled the Dons for marks inside 50 (23-7) and pummelled them in clearances (42-28), forward entries (68-40) and general marks (156-75) as well.

Hawthorn also scored 59 per cent of the time they entered their attacking zone, well up on the league average (44 per cent).

“The work rate needed to lift,” Mitchell said.

“The players were really well aware of that. I thought they did a good job of owning up and saying, ‘We didn’t work hard enough. We didn’t get it done’.

“And because of that, they took that responsibility and produced a really high-level performance.”

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As impressive as the Hawks were against struggling Essendon, Mitchell wasn’t getting carried away.

“This game is going to be about consistency of high performance and that’s one week,” he said.

“So we’re going to move on pretty quickly.

“We need to play much more often in the way that we did tonight because we know that what we put up last week won’t get it done often enough.”

Hawthorn’s midfield looked light on heading into the new season with Will Day out injured for an extended period, James Worpel traded to Geelong and the failed Zach Merrett trade.

But Josh Ward is putting his hand up to help pick up some of the slack and he, too, was a standout against the Bombers with 26 touches and eight inside 50s.

“He’s probably one who doesn’t get as many accolades as some of the other lads, but I think probably from around mid-season last year, he’s been a high-level AFL performer,” Mitchell said.

“He’s become a reasonably consistent midfielder. Probably for 18 games, I would say, he’s been pretty good for us.

“It’s going to be interesting to see how his growth and how high his ceiling can be.”