Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell is “unsure how to feel” after his side’s dramatic draw with Collingwood at the MCG on Thursday night.
The Hawks came from 23 points down midway through the second term and seven points down with a minute to go to clinch the draw through a Dylan Moore goal after the siren.
Mitchell was split between failing to capitalise on statistical dominance and pinching two points with a kick after the siren.
“I don’t know how to give a name to the emotion,” Mitchell said after his first draw as a coach.
“There is a part of me that thinks, you look at the numbers and go, ‘How did we only come away with two points’ and then with two minutes to go, ‘How did we get two points’, so I’m unsure how to feel.”
The Hawks belted the Pies in inside 50s (62-34) and clearances (39-23) but didn’t execute in front of goal, scoring 5.10 in the first half and finishing 13.15 for the game.
Mitchell credited the Pies for their defence and “potent” efficiency in attack.
However, he said his side needed to improve holistically as frustrations came to the fore around a lack of maximising their forward-50 entries.
“Realistically, we know we need to improve our game holistically,” Mitchell said.
“Did we improve parts of our game today? Sure. We did some things better today than we have been doing them.
“But some of the parts of our game that have been a bit more reliable fell away today.
“I look at the centre bounces, I think it was 19-5 so that’s an area where we had some trouble earlier in the year. An enormous amount of work has gone into that behind the scenes and we got a great result today.
“But then to not be able to maximise it in the front half, you get frustrated with that. So the glass is exactly in the middle for me which is why it’s a difficult feeling.”
Collingwood coach Craig McRae sees room for improvement in the Magpies’ finishes to quarters after conceding several goals late.
“When you’re in front by a goal with 40 seconds to go, you’d think you would hang onto those,” McRae said.
“I think we got some work to do with our late-quarter decision-making.
“They kicked a goal right on the siren. At half time, they kicked another one (and) at three-quarter time, when they get one on the siren.“
McRae is ultimately pleased with how Collingwood challenged “arguably the best team in the competition”.
“But fundamentally, I said to the boys, ‘We didn’t win tonight, but we definitely didn’t lose’,” he said.
“It’s important to acknowledge that we played some really good footy against arguably the best team in the competition.
“We come here tonight to see how our game stacks up and I think most of our fans would have been pretty happy.”
