HAWTHORN captain Sam Mitchell has played down his on-field dispute with vice-captain Luke Hodge as “healthy debate”.

As the Hawks headed into the quarter time huddle, television coverage showed Mitchell and Hodge vigorously arguing.

“It was on TV this week but if you have a look next week, and you look closely enough, you’ll probably see something similar,” Mitchell said.

“We’re both guys who want to get the best out of our side and as two leaders, captain and vice-captain, we want to have some healthy debate about the way things are going, what we can do better, what’s working and what Richmond were doing.

“We probably had different views on what was going on and we voiced them. We got to the bottom of them, so there are no issues.”

According to the skipper the midfield duo’s difference of opinion was down to structural strategies.

“It was a structure thing. [It was] just whether or not we were supposed to be in a man-on-man or a zone mentality at a certain part of the game. It was very, very minor.”

As far as Mitchell is concerned, such debate is more the norm than the exception at football clubs.

“It’s just part of footy. You’ve got 40 blokes running around on a training track together and on the weekend there are 20 blokes running around the track together, they’re all full of adrenaline and testosterone and all have opinions to get across. Sometimes when you disagree there’s a bit of a spat but it’s certainly nothing major.”

When asked who won the argument, Mitchell was quick to respond.