Mitchell took no time slotting back into his role gathering possessions at will and, alongside Luke Hodge, Shaun Burgoyne and Brad Sewell, managed to keep the Lions off the ball for large parts of the afternoon.
The skipper gathered 35 disposals as part of an onball division that completely dominated its opposition.
“We worked hard as a group. We shared the ball around probably a fair bit more than we have in the past,” Mitchell said after the game.
“A lot more handball, probably a little bit too much in the end. But good to get involved in the game and run away with one. It’s been a while since we’ve done that.”
Mitchell found particular praise for Shaun Burgoyne, the former Power midfielder beginning to show the kind of form that made him a high priority for the Hawks coming into the 2010 season.
“Him (Burgoyne) and Cyril [Rioli], both those guys bring a bit of speed and a unique running pattern when they get the ball and it’s hard to guess what they’re going to do with the ball and makes it pretty hard to defend for the opposition.”
Burgoyne regularly slipped past Lions’ tacklers on Saturday, repeatedly driving the ball forward and providing a rapier edge to the in-and-under grunt work of Mitchell, Hodge and Sewell.
“We’ve got good depth in the midfield now,” Mitchell said.
“There’s a few guys who are happy to play a few different roles. You can’t be in the centre bounce every centre bounce anymore, you have to play half-forward and wing and half-back and lots of different roles and have good flexibility."
Despite the positives taken out of Saturday’s fixture in terms of players returning to form and the sheer magnitude of the win, Mitchell was clear in his summation of Hawthorn’s next challenge against St Kilda on Friday night.
“We know they’re a very, very good side,” he said. “They’ve taken defensive footy to another level the last couple of years and a lot of teams have trouble scoring against them so we’ve got to find a way to score and to stop them scoring.
“It’s going to be a big week for us so hopefully we can prepare well and be competitive against one of the best sides in the competition.”
