MITCH Hannan believes his past two matches against North Melbourne and the Gold Coast Suns respectively have been his best games so far in his emerging career.
Hannan has kicked six goals in the past two rounds – three against the Roos and three against the Suns – giving him 13 majors from nine appearances this year. He said he was gaining confidence each week in his debut season.
“In terms of the context of the game, I think North Melbourne was my best game, because I was able to help the momentum swing and get the team back into the game,” he told melbournefc.com.au.
“But personally, I felt individually, it was my best game on the weekend against the Suns.
“It took a few weeks to get adjusted and find my feet, and find the pace of the game, but I’ve found in recent weeks I’ve been able to play to my strengths and have some better games.”
The mature-age recruit, who was drafted from Footscray’s VFL team at No.46 in the NAB AFL Draft last year, said his first year at Melbourne had been “awesome”.
“I didn’t think I’d be playing so early, but to be given the opportunity and to be able to play the majority of games has been an enjoyable journey,” he said.
“There is still a lot of hard work ahead in the second half of the season, but hopefully we can play finals.
“It’s been a great experience.”
This week, Hannan and his Melbourne teammates have been out and about in the community.
On Tuesday, they had country visits across Victoria and on Wednesday evening, the Demons were back in red and blue territory at DW Lucas Oval in East Malvern.
Hannan said it had been an enjoyable few days to get out among the community before the mid-season break.
“It’s good to give back to the community and it’s good to do these at the midway point of the season,” he said.
“It’s good to come out and see the kids and the supporters coming through the ranks, so it’s good fun and great to get out in our Heartland.
“On Tuesday, I went to Bendigo. It’s about two hours from the city, but about an hour away from where I’m originally from. It was good to get up there and run a few clinics at primary schools and we did some question and answers, so it was good.”
As for how Hannan will be spending his four days off over the bye, the forward said it would be pretty laid back.
“A lot of the guys will be going interstate, but I’ll just be going home. I’ve got a housewarming on the weekend and then I’ll see the parents for a couple of days, so it’ll be relatively low-key,” he said.
