By Tyler Lewis

Copyright news

The well-documented meeting between Mitchell and Essendon captain Zach Merrett has sparked debate around players in leadership positions exploring trades.

And now Mitchell, after also meeting with former West Coast Eagles captain Oscar Allen earlier this year, is gaining a status as a ruthless recruiter.

But that title sits fine with Mitchell, who says he will continue doing what he can to make Hawthorn stronger.

“That’s fine; I’ve got a clear job to do and I am very focused on making Hawthorn the best club it can be for now, first and foremost,” he said.

“But we’ve got a whole bunch of people that are working on making sure the future of Hawthorn is pretty good as well.”

As the Hawks look to add to their top-end talent, they have two of the very few players in the finals playing out of contract.

James Worpel and Sam Butler are both unsigned and are speculated to be heading elsewhere in 2026.

Mitchell joked that he wanted to be the only club holding off-Broadway player meetings but understood and expected some of his own to be assessing their future.

“I can’t imagine we don’t have some contracted players meeting with other clubs,” he said.

“I wish they wouldn’t; I wish we could meet everyone else’s and no one could meet ours.

“But that’s not the reality; the reality is players in and out of contract meet with other clubs – that’s the world we live in.”

Hawthorn captain James Sicily on Monday said the growing world of trade was just the new norm and insisted the club would be “stupid” not to pursue Merrett.

Mitchell agrees and says the Hawks will be “on the peripheral of plenty of others” as well.

“This is this time of the year, isn’t it? I have read 10 or 12 names who are being pushed around, this player is going here, that player is going there,” he said.

“Some of them have been confirmed by clubs mainly out of the finals race and plenty that are still in.

“There’s lots of talk at this time of the year, that’s how it works and that’s what happens – we happened to be in the middle of a couple of those stories.

“We’re also on the peripheral of plenty of others. Our list management team will be working on making us better for next year.”