- Port Adelaide fans jeered Sam Mitchell during grudge match
- Hawks coach says what they chanted has made him chuckle
Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell has addressed a heated incident involving Port Adelaide fans during the Hawks’ defeat on Sunday, revealing what exactly Power fans were yelling at him – and why.
The Power’s 30-point win over the high-flying Hawks during the AFL’s Gather Round was the first defeat of the season for Hawthorn and the crowd let Mitchell know about it.
One fan got ejected for what he yelled out – but Mitchell says he had nothing to do with security evicting him from the ground.
‘I’m only just ready to have a little chuckle about this, but I was walking down at three-quarter time and we were clearly up against it at that period and someone [in the crowd] gave me a fair bit of sledging and heckling,’ Mitchell explained on Nine’s Footy Classified.
‘And I didn’t realise it, but as I got down they’d kicked him out.
‘And by the time I walked back up to start the [fourth] quarter, I had the whole bay chanting “dibber dobber” to me. I hadn’t heard that phrase in a long time.
Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell copped it from Power fans during Gather Round clash
Fans blamed Mitchell for a fan being ejected from the stadium and chanted ‘dibber dobber’
Hawthorn started the season 4-0 but crashed to their first loss against Port Adelaide
‘This whole bay just called me a dibber dobber. I didn’t laugh at the time, I had other things on my mind, but I woke up this morning and had a chuckle.’
Mitchell explained in his post-match press conference that he was surprised by the result and that he was still searching for answers.
‘Where did we go wrong?’ Mitchell replied when asked what his post-match chat to his team was about.
‘They obviously taught us a bit of a lesson.
‘We’re a bit torn, obviously there was a bit riding on the game and we would have loved to have played much better than that.
‘The first half of that game was unacceptable and not the way that we want to play, not the style of play that we try to produce.
‘I’m trying to work out why.
‘We’re 4-1 and not in a terrible position on the year, but it doesn’t feel like that right in this moment.’
