Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell has addressed talk that the club is looking elsewhere for home games following the expiration of the club's long-standing deal with Tasmania.
The brown-and-gold are understood to be exploring the possibility of hosting games in Wellington, Canberra or Cairns, and Mitchell isn't against creating a new fortress.
Since 2001, Hawthorn has won 76.1 per cent of matches, spanning over 90 games in Launceston.
“My take on it is wherever we are the most likely to win the most games, that should be our focus,” Mitchell said on Wednesday.
“If that's at Melbourne at the MCG, that's great, if that's at another home to have a competitive advantage somewhere else then I'm open minded to that but other than that it's not my area, I leave that to Ash Klein and his crew to work out what that looks like from a commercial point-of-view he would be looking at but from my point-of-view, wherever you win the most games, you win the most games, you get the best opportunity in finals to win flags.”
Mitchell was unconcerned by the memo sent to clubs by the league about managing players late in the season.
After Melbourne coach Steven King and Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge pushed back on the memo on AFL 360 on Monday night, Mitchell said it would not affect his thinking at the selection table.
“I didn't feel any pressure at all. We're trying to win every game we play. We still manage players because maybe winning today costs you tomorrow,” Mitchell said.
“We've managed players across the course of this season and will continue to do so. I didn't read too much into it; it won't affect our decision-making one bit.”
Mitchell also spoke on his commitment to Hawthorn until the end of 2030, which was confirmed on Monday evening.
“It was pretty seamless and good to get it done. I was in no rush for a long period. I love Hawthorn; we've had a good relationship for a long period of time, so I didn't think there was ever going to be too much concern over it,” Mitchell said.
“I didn't think about it a lot. It didn't hang over my head by any stretch, but nice to have it done so I stop getting asked about it.”
