The Hawthorn star had spent the night in the close company of Brent Macaffer, whose strong discipline and unerring concentration have earned him rave reviews as Collingwood's No.1 tagger this season.
The pair had exchanged words and pushed and shoved throughout their battle within a battle, and Macaffer's teammates had offered their support, putting the Hawks' four-time club best and fairest winner on the ground at every opportunity.
But though Mitchell's 24 disposals were down on his season average of 28.7, he'd had, by virtue of his team's 35-point victory, the last laugh.
Sitting on a box in the changerooms after the match, the weary 30-year-old said he had enjoyed the challenge.
"It was good," Mitchell told AFL.com.au.
"That's always going to be part of the game.
"It was Isaac Smith's turn [to be tagged] last week, and my turn this week, and the way a couple of our other guys are playing, it might be their turn next week.
"We've got a lot of guys that get pretty close attention from the opposition, and we just try to play our role."
Having spent much of 2013 switching between half-back and the centre square, Mitchell played an entire game in the midfield on Friday night for the first time this year.
He said he had tried to use Macaffer's tag to the team's advantage, creating two-on-one situations with other Collingwood players to free up his Hawthorn teammates.
For his efforts, he earned the praise of his coach Alastair Clarkson.
"I thought he stuck to his task pretty well and helped us," Clarkson said.
"A smart player like 'Mitch' can use [a tag] to our advantage at different stages, and I thought he really helped us at times without getting the ball with some key structure stuff that helped us control some of their players."
In the Collingwood rooms, Macaffer felt he had achieved his main target of stopping Mitchell from winning clearances and contested ball. (Only six of the Hawk's possessions were contested).
"Something we spoke about with midfield coach Robert Harvey was he's so effective around clearances," Macaffer told AFL.com.au.
"I thought I was able to stop him reasonably well there.
"He did get away from me a little bit, but I tried to take his effectiveness away.
"Hawthorn really looked after him tonight and it's probably the best team that I've played against in terms of looking after their guys getting tagged."
Brent Macaffer lays a tackle on Sam Mitchell. Picture: AFL Media
Macaffer said the Magpies had made a point of being physical towards all Hawthorn players, and Mitchell hadn't been targeted for special treatment.
"We speak about trying to be physical, and we know that teams like Hawthorn are going to come after us physically," he said.
"We didn't want to be bullied around and we wanted to take the fight to them and be aggressive.
"Not just to him, but to all their players.
"It's great when my teammates are helping me out as well and giving me a chop out."
With Friday night's win putting Hawthorn within one more victory of clinching top spot, Mitchell said the team was now working towards hitting its peak for the finals.
"We're playing for keeps now," he said.
"We want to keep winning to make sure we get a top two spot, and it's finals after that, so you can't lose then, obviously.
"We're going to field our best side every game and try to play our best footy."
