HAWTHORN coach Sam Mitchell doesn’t think he has seen a better performance than the one his captain produced on Saturday to drag the Hawks over the line, following another week of intense focus on off-field areas of the football club.

In a week where CEO Justin Reeves quit, citing the toll of the ongoing investigation into allegations of racism at the club, James Sicily stood up for the Hawks and led them to a stunning come-from-behind victory over St Kilda at Marvel Stadium.

Sicily accumulated 43 disposals – ten more than his previous best – 22 intercept possessions, 17 contested possessions, 16 marks (eight intercept, four contested) and 658m gained in a dominant display that led the Hawks to back-to-back wins.

"It is the best individual game I’ve coached a player in," Mitchell said after the ten-point win on Saturday.

"Believe it or not I actually dragged him at one stage in the game because he lost his way a little bit. The growth in him as a leader is that exact thing. It didn’t go perfectly; he had some moments that he would like again; he coughed up a goal and he had a couple of iffy decisions with the ball; straight away he went after it and played the right way for 95 per cent of that game.

"It was as good a game as I’ve seen from an individual player. Every time we looked like we were breached and they were going to score, if Sicily was in the area we were OK."

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Mitchell explained that he pulled the reigning Peter Crimmins Medallist off at one point and got the response he was looking for, especially in the final 20 minutes when the Hawks kicked the final five goals of the game to recover from 20 points down early in the fourth quarter.

"It was 'get him off now, we’ll have a bit of a chat'. He was like, 'Yes I know, I know’'," Mitchell said.

"I think a captain and a coach relationship can be pretty special. We’ve spent a lot of time together. He knows if I’m dragging him it’s for his own good. His last 20 minutes, regardless of how well he played in the first three quarters, it was just phenomenal."

After winning eight games to exceed external expectations in his first season in charge of the club he won four premierships at, this year has been a much greater challenge for Mitchell.

But after backing up the 116-point win over West Coast with an even more telling win over St Kilda, amid a week of intense focus from beyond the four walls, Mitchell expressed his pride at the way the group blocked out the noise.

"The club as a whole has had a big few weeks. (We’ve been) in the media for a lot of non-football related topics," he said.

"As a playing group, football department, coaching staff, we know that we are the ones who put the brown and gold jumper on, we are the face of the club, the face of 80,000 people, 100 staff as well as your own families and those sorts of things. Being able to make the 80,000 proud of what they see.

“We don’t have any control over the outside noise. What we do have control over is the intent that you see. Even if we hadn’t won that game, every Hawthorn supporter who was at the game or watched it on TV would have said that’s a team that plays for each other, that works hard and play for their colours. I was really proud of our strength of character to be able to play the right way regardless of external noise.”

St Kilda coach Ross Lyon said his side got the result it deserved on Saturday, after losing the midfield battle, conceding far too many marks inside 50 and struggling to contain a red-hot Sicily for most of the game.

The Saints would have ended the round inside the top-four if they got over the line, but will still head to the mid-season bye well ahead of pre-season expectations after winning seven of its first 11 games.

"We’ve worked really hard for our results and got what we deserved early in the year. I thought we really got what we deserved today," Lyon said.

"I thought they should have won by four or five goals. We certainly would have pinched it. We probably had a period where we sort of got after them and caused turnovers and got back into the game. Their midfield dominated three out of the four quarters.

"We are really disappointed. It’s a bit weird we go into the break and we always talk about staying focused but subconsciously do things creep in? I don’t know. We had a sharp week. What Hawthorn did, we knew. If mentally [we] weren’t there, I take responsibility. [The players have] got to own it individually, but ultimately it sits with me. The action I saw wasn’t what we’ve tried to implement and coach all year. We’ll go away, freshen up.

"If they are the 17th [ranked] team in the competition, the competition is not only in rude financial health it’s in rude health for competitiveness amongst teams I would suggest."

St Kilda will face Sydney at the SCG when Thursday night football returns in round 13, while Hawthorn heads to South Australia next weekend to face Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval.