Mitchell, who led Hawthorn to its 10th flag with a 26-point win over Geelong at the MCG on Saturday, said it was only deep in time-on in the last term when he thought he was assured of holding up the premiership cup.
"When we were chipping it around and there was 27 or 28 minutes gone, I thought: 'We've got this', but I didn't want to get too excited," Mitchell said in his post-match media conference.
"You give a bit of a wink to a couple of your teammates and it's a great feeling, but I'm not sure if we were over the line then."
Mitchell, who had a quiet match with just 13 touches, conceded coach Alastair Clarkson gave him and superstar forward Lance Franklin, who had 12 disposals for the game, a bake at half time.
"'He put a rocket up myself and 'Franko' and I thought our second halves … we played a role and it wasn't our greatest day individually, but I thought we played our role for the team and that's been our focus for the whole finals series," he said.
Still, there was only thing Mitchell was concerned after the game and that was the brown and gold could celebrate its first flag since 1991.
"It all is a little bit surreal. We train for so long and all of the pre-season and we've done all of the running sessions and every meeting that seems to drag on a little bit too long – it all just seems worth it," Mitchell said.
"We go through so much … and when you get here and you hold the cup up and the boys run up – particularly 'Crawf' after [playing for] 17 years, it was a special moment for him in particular.
"When I see Richie Vandenberg after the game and the blokes who just missed out – it just shows you when you see those guys how much it actually means to so many people. It probably hasn't sunk in yet, but we're loving the moment."
