SAM MITCHELL had done the courses. He had done the reading (and continues to do plenty of that). He had tapped into mentors and former coaches for advice. He had set his mind on being an AFL head coach well before his playing career at Hawthorn, and then West Coast, finished. His time at the Eagles in particular was spent with a foot in both the playing and coaching camps.

He had coached his own side in the VFL, had been given extra responsibilities as an assistant and had been a part of an (albeit messy) coaching handover. And still, as the Hawks champion and four-time premiership star settles into life as the club's new coach, there are surprises about the job that pop up.

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"I was thinking about what you are prepared for and in all the coaching courses and reading and watching, you do learn an enormous amount. But some of the things I perhaps hadn't learnt is all of the little questions people ask you all the time," Mitchell told AFL.com.au this week ahead of his first official game as Hawks coach in Saturday's AAMI Community Series clash with Richmond.

"Like, 'We have two groups going to Tasmania, do you want to go the day or the day before? Who do you want to go? Do you want to train before or after that?'

"All the details people are always coming to you with. From a medical [perspective], it's 'Do you want to play this guy or not play him?' There's just this consistent questioning all the time and being in charge you have to be really clear.

"The key thing is to have a philosophy that you're all about. So by having a clear plan of where we're going and what we want to do it enables strong decision making."

This year, unlike 2021 when some Hawthorn players were confused about the coaching transition from Alastair Clarkson, there is no doubt who is in charge at Waverley Park. This is Mitchell's team, the first coach of the brown and gold since Clarkson took the reins for the 2005 season. Mitchell, too, is asking questions of his own on how the Hawks can get better.

For anyone who followed Mitchell's illustrious 329-game career, it would be no surprise that the 39-year-old sees himself as a coach whose priorities are organisation and planning. He left nothing to chance as a player and has the same appetite for work in his new role, one he knows comes with added scrutiny following Clarkson's early exit last year.

"I think I got the wrong job if I was too concerned about pressure. Every head coach is under some form of pressure. Whether it's from the fans, or your board or your players or coaches, there's pressure in every head coaching role or any leadership position," he said.

"I think Cathy Freeman [has said] 'Pressure is a privilege'.

"We're quite honest about where we are and we've got a really clear plan and framework for where we want to go and how we want to get there. As far as the proving of people wrong, they're all by-products. We won't do anything that is trying to do that.

"We will be going in the direction we're going with every bit of ability and every resource that we can gather to help us execute our plan and continue to put development opportunities into our youth and build that premiership style of play that we think the game's going in the future."

Mitchell's commitment to youth is obvious. Hawks fans will see draftees Josh Ward, Connor MacDonald and Sam Butler this season. He hopes Mitch Lewis is ready to have a breakout year as a young key forward of the competition. He is excited about further development from Lachie Bramble and Jai Newcombe as midfielders after their efforts last season.

But he is equally as direct on how he wants the Hawks to play. "In my perfect world how I would like our team to play, [it's with] a clear structure but with a lot of flair and enthusiasm within the game," Mitchell said.

His philosophy on coaching has been shaped by different means and methods. When he first arrived at Hawthorn, legendary coach David Parkin was a mentor and remains close to Mitchell. He played at the Hawks under then assistant coaches Luke Beveridge, Adam Simpson, Brett Ratten, and Chris Fagan, and alongside Stuart Dew. Now, they are four of his adversaries across the competition. But he's also a studier of international sports and business models that have worked, trying to glean things from different fields to take into his own.

"Whether it's a Steve Jobs of the world who are right out there doing crazy things which you might not be able to implement in your business but they do get you to look at things differently," he said. "I think it's really important in a leadership position like what I have having an innovative mindset."

And then there's Clarkson, who left Hawthorn a year before he was due to exit at the end of 2022. Mitchell said the pair had remained in contact as he took control of the club after Clarkson's four-flag and 17-year stint.

"We've touched base. I think he's got a fair bit on his plate, he's doing his stuff in Tasmania and been overseas for a long time," he said.

"He's a guy who I'll continue to lean on as someone who coached me for most of my career and I think the wisdom he has about the game but also about the coaching mechanics are something I'll lean on over the journey."

Mitchell's first summer in charge was busy. He made some changes to the Hawks' facility layout, was involved in the trade and draft periods and pieced together a new-look coaching panel, which included bringing over his childhood hero and St Kilda legend Robert Harvey after his time as Collingwood's interim head coach last year to run Hawthorn's midfield.

"I think it took all the coaches a bit over a month to stop calling him Robert Harvey," Mitchell said.

"We had 'Hick' for (assistant) Adrian Hickmott, 'Haley' for David Hale but everyone just kept calling him Robert Harvey. It's stopped now, we just call him 'Harvs' or 'Banger' or whatever, but it did take quite a while."

Just as it was strange for Mitchell to be next to Harvey, he understands why some Hawks fans will find it "unusual" to see him as the club's head coach after Clarkson's long tenure. But after bottom-five finishes the past two seasons and the Hawks committing to a draft-led rebuild, Mitchell is locked in for the long haul.

"We are going to invest time and effort into our development and that's a positive, and the other part is we're going to build a game style that will stand up in finals. We're not going to try to build something that will just make us competitive at the moment. We want to build a game style that will make us compete in finals when our time comes," Mitchell said.

"There's no ceilings on when that will be. We know premierships aren't built overnight so the challenge for us is to maintain the rage and keep pushing in the right direction and once our time comes we just need to be ready."

SAM MITCHELL ON…

James Sicily's return

"He's the player I get asked the most about. He's got a great personality, he's a fantastic person to have around the club, he's a 'bringer-togetherer' of people. He wears his heart on his sleeve and I think as a Hawthorn fan you should be proud of the development he has made as a person and a player since he hurt himself. He's a really important player for us, a very talented player, and his confidence to read the play makes him an important player for where we want to go. We don't underestimate James at all."

Last year's Continental Tyres AFL Trade Period

"It was quite different how it played out publicly and how it played out privately. That's the industry we're in. We would loved to have got some more early draft picks but by no token were we pushing out any of our players. As the honesty of our players and myself has come through, we had an offer for Luke Breust which was really strong and we talked about it and he said 'Nah, I'm a Hawthorn person and I'm staying at Hawthorn' and he's been fantastic through the pre-season. On the weekend Sam Butler did a couple of nice things and Luke looked over at me and said 'Oh look at him, that's my boy!' so the level of pride he has in one of our younger players is exactly what we're after. Would we have liked to get some more early draft picks? Yeah, every club in the competition would like that. We are where we are and I'm quite happy with where we are right now."

The key forwards mix

"Mitch Lewis has grabbed the bulls by the horns this pre-season and he's been a really strong contributor for us consistently. Not just one game here or one game there but he's actually been a really dominant force in most of our training and a lot of our games now. He's put a real strong body of work together. I think Jacob Koschitzke is probably a little bit behind just due to some injury issues over the pre-season so he's continuing to build and to work. His great attribute is his physicality and his ability to run, and he hasn't quite got to the heights that he's been to in the last 12 months yet, but we're still hopeful he'll be there."