Hawks coach Sam Mitchell spoke to the media after the game.

Q: After quarter time, did you feel the shifting power in the game, was it an attitude thing on the part of your guys or did you flick a few switches, what caused it?
A: Personally, I was really proud of the players for dealing with the whole game. There was a lot of ups and downs, particularly in the early phase, I thought they controlled a lot of the game and we were hanging on for different periods. I think when you are able to handle momentum swings, it obviously gives you better looks. When we got the momentum, we were able to maintain it. I was proud of them. I think halfway through the second quarter we really controlled a lot of the game after that. They obviously threw a few different things at us, but the players handled it well.

Q: James Sicily was huge in defence as well?
A: They resort to midfield heavily and they are very good in there. That meant that our dependence on working in a fair bit of space. In that, James’ first half was obviously outstanding. He made them, not sure what they said, I thought they had to change a couple of things because of him. The way our defenders were moving the ball and getting it out of there, it was reasonably comfortable. I thought we were quite mature. More than 97,000 [in the crowd] so thank you to everyone who came out, biggest crowd I’ve ever coached [in front of] and most of them have ever played in front of. The players handle every aspect of the game really well, whatever is thrown at us, tactical or even little things like score reviews, blood rules or those little details in a game which you can lose your way. Marcus Bontempelli’s first five or eight minutes in the last quarter was, everyone was saying ‘here we go’. The way the players handle things like that, I thought we showed a level of maturity which gives me confidence.

Q: Did you have a specific plan to curb Bontempelli’s influence?
A: We have things we would use but he is such a dynamic and dangerous player. He certainly looked like doing that a couple of times. David Hale, our midfield coach, coached really well today, they are a challenging team to coach against. I thought he did a really good job with the midfield and it was a pretty good battle. I think [Jai] Newcombe ended up with big numbers. Quite an even contribution from them and that is what we have relied on from the majority, not any individual players but being able to share the load.

Q: How is a team this young able to handle these moments, Calsher Dear, Nick Watson, young players able to step up and play in front of almost 100,000 people?
A: It’s a good question. I wonder if it is the naivety of youth, maybe they don’t know it is a big deal. They are enjoying their football and playing with a high amount of energy. Look at the scoreboard and the golden point take it, but I thought the Wizard was a little down early but had a look in couple of places and pressured ... he got a fingernail on some. Then a goal came. The stuff we show probably won’t be the goals, it will be the chasing and the pressure. That is where we looked on song tonight. For the majority of the game, our pressure held us in good stead.