Hawthorn great Luke Hodge is entirely confident former teammate Sam Mitchell will make an outstanding AFL coach one day.
Mitchell is currently coaching the Box Hill Hawks in the VFL, is serving as an assistant to Alastair Clarkson at the Hawks and has been open about his aspirations to be an AFL coach.
With the Collingwood coaching role vacant, Hodge believes the Pies, and the other 16 teams, should absolutely be having a chat with the Brownlow Medallist.
“I think any club is silly not to have a conversation with Sam, even if it’s getting him in for an assistant or anything like that,” Hodge told SEN SA Breakfast.
“Is he ready? The only person who’s going to know that is Sam himself.
“I spoke to him last year when the North Melbourne job was up for grabs and he said at that time that he wasn’t.
“He said that he hadn’t coached his own team yet, which he’s doing at the moment and from all reports and what you hear from players and coaches he’s doing a fantastic job.
“He’s rounding himself out as a coach. One thing with Mitch, he’s only been a coach for three years, but he’s been preparing himself to be a coach since his last four or five years of football.”
While Mitchell may lack the years of coaching experience of others around the league, Hodge said his teammate had been preparing to coach long before his AFL career came to a close.
“Everything he did at Hawthorn and then at West Coast was to prepare himself to be the best coach he could be,” Hodge said.
“I think all clubs would be silly if they don’t at least sit down and have a chat with him and suss out what his thoughts are and whether he would be interested in moving across.
“He will be a great coach. It’s just his call whether he’s ready or not or if he needs another year at Box Hill to hone his skill.”
Mitchell famously departed Hawthorn for West Coast for a year in 2017 in order to serve essentially as a playing coach under Adam Simpson.