Mitchell has joined Fremantle as an assistant coach and will work alongside Todd Curley with the midfield. The players felt festive, presenting the coaches with Aussie bush hats with corks, which former Sydney, Collingwood and Carlton rover Mitchell was happy to don when fronting the media.
"We thought we'd play our part in a great day for the country," Mitchell said.
"It's a bit of a laugh to look at some of the guy's hairstyles and you try to have some of these moments in a long pre-season where the guys have been training really well."
Fremantle's NAB Cup begins at Subiaco Oval against Richmond on February 15 and while Mitchell confirms new players will be blooded, he isn’t sure which of the 14 new faces will line up. However, just because Stephen Hill (pick No. 3) and Nick Suban (24) were the club's top draft picks they aren’t ahead of the pack.
"I don’t think we can be definite about anything at this point in time other than to say there will be some young faces, so that will be good to have look at those guys," he said.
“The guys are still working through heavy loads of training and we aren’t entirely sure who we'll play. We might also look at a couple of rookies depending on how it all falls.
"Hill and Suban are training pretty well and they were high draft picks, but they aren’t higher than anybody else. It will be about how they come up in the next three weeks. Those guys have started a bit late and the focus is on getting them up to speed for the entire season rather than looking at the first NAB Cup game."
At this stage, the only players not right to play that first clash are Hayden Ballantyne (wrist) and Paul Duffield (hand). Duffield has been able to continue his fitness work and will certainly play in some of the pre-season, while it's a wait and see game with Ballantyne.
"He's coming along well, Ballantyne. He's doing a lot of running and should join in with major ball work soon," he said.
"He's been doing that on the side and is nearly ready to go. I don’t know exactly when he'll start, but we are confident he'll be right for the early part of the season."
As an assistant coach, Mitchell was involved at Hawthorn in 2008 and Carlton before that; also coaching VFL clubs Northern Bullants and Box Hill Hawks. He is impressed with what he's seen from the Fremantle players and coaches so far.
"The guys haven’t shied away from anything and have been fantastic right the way through from our leadership group to the young players. Everyone has taken their turn and we couldn’t be happier with their effort," he said.
"We all (the coaches) get on well, everyone is professional in what they do and specialised in their areas. This time of the year is good because we can get what we want done and then the business will start, which is when we'll find out what we'll do."
