{"id":778968,"date":"2026-07-04T17:49:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T17:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/778968\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T17:49:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T17:49:21","slug":"afl-news-2026-sam-mitchell-and-steven-king-press-conference-videos-after-melbourne-demons-defeat-hawthorn-hawks-in-bizarre-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/778968\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL news 2026: Sam Mitchell and Steven King press conference videos after Melbourne Demons defeat Hawthorn Hawks in bizarre game"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell will not be taking much notice of his team\u2019s extraordinary second-half goal avalanche, while Melbourne coach Steven King took a glass-half-full view of his team\u2019s 35-point win<\/a> in what was a bizarre game in Launceston on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The Demons led by a staggering 96 points during the third quarter before incredibly conceding the next 12 goals to see their advantage whittled to just 23 points in the final term.<\/p>\n

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After some nervous moments, with Hawthorn eyeing off what would\u2019ve been the greatest comeback in VFL\/AFL history by some margin, Bayley Fritsch and Jacob van Rooyen steadied the ship for Melbourne with the last two goals.<\/p>\n

Despite the fightback, Mitchell was more concerned with Hawthorn\u2019s atrocious start to the contest as they were \u201ctaught a lesson\u201d and rendered uncompetitive by a ferocious Melbourne outfit.<\/p>\n

The Demons set up the win with a near-perfect first half as they opened up massive buffers in contested possessions (82-52), clearances (25-9), centre clearances (8-3), forward entries (37-23) and disposals (200-150) on the back of manic pressure, while also belting the Hawks around the contest and on the outside too.<\/p>\n

\u201cMelbourne are not playing for a lot after three-quarter time are they? They know they\u2019ve got the game sewn up pretty much,\u201d Mitchell told reporters post-game.<\/p>\n

Demons beat Hawks in incredible match | 01:37<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t read too much into it. I don\u2019t think that was the reality of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe look at the first half and one team had all their ducks in row and came ready to play and the other team didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was too many problems in the game \u2026 we\u2019d kicked one goal and we couldn\u2019t stop their scoring.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had problems in every department of the ground and every phase.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019ll be some of us that want to look at the second half, but I think we need to be realistic about where we\u2019re at today.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first half shows that in a competition like this, if you don\u2019t turn up ready to play, then you get taught a lesson, which we did.\u201d<\/p>\n

King, meanwhile, was keen to focus on those aspects of the game as Melbourne snapped Hawthorn\u2019s 12-game winning streak at the venue.<\/p>\n

‘We want to play like that everywhere’ | 05:29<\/p>\n

\u201cNot an easy place to come down and win so walk away with four points; walk away winning interstate (for the first time in 2026); walk away with a pretty good three quarters of footy,\u201d King said.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust so happy and thrilled with the way the boys set the tone of the game early.<\/p>\n

\u201cNever sure what you\u2019re going to get off a bye, but things we sort of put in place and focused on to try and refine Demon football I thought came to life for three quarters, especially early in the game, and that was really pleasing.\u201d<\/p>\n

King took a philosophical approach to Melbourne\u2019s final quarter as they completely switched off and allowed the Hawks to boot the opening nine majors of the term.<\/p>\n

King believed a combination of complacency from his team and Hawthorn belatedly clicking into gear led to the Hawks\u2019 late avalanche of goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew Hawthorn would come out and have a run at it,\u201d King said.<\/p>\n

Gawn struggles for words after Dees win | 00:44<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a coach you probably walk away and if you\u2019d told me we\u2019d win by 35 points before we started, I\u2019d take it.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut just some good opportunities for us to probably sit back and learn from that when momentum\u2019s against us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mitchell was hopeful that the performance was an aberration for his side.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to think that\u2019s not where we\u2019re at,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe recognise that we\u2019ve got some work to do to be the best side in the competition, which is what we strive for, and we\u2019re not there yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Hawks were missing star players Nick Watson, Jarman Impey, Karl Amon, Conor Nash and Josh Battle on Saturday, but on a positive note, Mitchell was hopeful that as many as four of them would be back for their clash against Carlton next week.<\/p>\n

\u2014 NCA NewsWire<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell will not be taking much notice of his team\u2019s extraordinary second-half goal avalanche, while…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":778969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,85,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-778968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-sports","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=778968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/778969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=778968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=778968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=778968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}