Sam Mitchell, still rather clearly racked with the pain of another preliminary final heartbreak, afforded praise to two of his side's most influential figures, after his Hawks came oh-so-close to the most famous of preliminary final comebacks.
In the final frame of one of history's most pulsating affairs, last year's Most Improved Player at Hawthorn, Josh Ward, was stellar, and his coach said as much.
“We're looking at best and fairests awards. We have ‘Most Improved' - last year it was Josh Ward, and he could nearly win it again," Mitchell said in his post-match presser.
"He's become a very, very good player, which is no surprise to anyone that's seen the way he goes about it during the week. He'll continue to stand up in big moments, I'm sure, for the rest of his career - which will be very long.”
Nick "The Wizard" Watson could not have done much more, either, setting a new career high in goals for a match, with six on the massive stage.
Watson - a player known as one of Mitchell's favourites - also drew his coach's praise.
“He's a gun," the coach said.
"I've been quoted as saying small forwards are really important in big games and in finals - they don't come much smaller or much better than him.
"He's a very, very good footballer. He loves being in the front half of the ground, loves kicking goals; he was pretty exciting to watch today."
A player who failed to impact was hard-luck story Will Day, who was hampered by a body not yet used to the rigours of September football, such is his injury history. Josh Dunkley quelled Day magnificently, with the South Australian managing just 13 touches for the game, and none, in the final term.
Mitchell did not think that his gun's inability to run out the game was indicative of a larger problem for the side.
“”Daysy” was probably a little bit underdone still - he hasn't played the whole season and didn't handle it as well. We've played in those conditions a bit. It was a good game of footy - I thought we played it out pretty well," Mitchell said.
Mitchell is incredibly proud of his group, but did not shy away from his club's intentions to again be aggressive in the upcoming trade period. Ben King's acquisition has been all but confirmed for much of the year, while the club are again tipped to pursue Bomber Zach Merrett.
“I think we've shown a couple of times this year that we are a team of character. We stand up, and we don't get run over. The vast majority of what we need is here, but we need a lot to go right to get to that last Saturday in September," he said.
“We need to continue to improve to make sure we are two steps further next year.
“Between now and March 15th, or whenever Round 1 of next year is, our job is to improve our organisation as much as we possibly can. We will improve our playing list, we will improve our staff, we'll improve our facilities - we'll improve every part of our organisation to continue to make growth and go where we want to go - because it's not losing on preliminary final weekend.
"This feeling is the pits."
