ONE of the biggest stars of Aussie Rules Football has revealed how he breaks the rules – by staying up late to watch to Tottenham matches on TV.
Sam Mitchell has been dubbed ‘The David Beckham of the AFL’ having just completed 300 games for the mega-successful Hawthorn Hawks.
He is also a huge Spurs fan.
And as he showed a delegation from his favourite Premier League club around the Hawks training ground this morning he caused a bit of a stir Down Under by admitting he tunes in to watch their matches on the box – when he is supposed to be preparing for his team’s own fixtures.
The Aussie Rules poster-boy said: “Don’t tell my coaches! I’m supposed to be setting a good example by going to be bed early and leading a professional lifestyle and I do all those things.
“I don’t drink during the football season and I’m quite the diligent preparer. But I do stay up a little bit late to watch the soccer.
“I set an alarm and my wife punches me as I crawl out of bed into the other room to sit up and watch Spurs.
“Everyone has a little fault in their preparations and that’s mine!”
Mitchell became hooked on Tottenham thanks to his little boy Smith.
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He explained: “My son is six and when we first had him, a friend of mine was living in London. He is a big Spurs man and he sent me over a Tottenham kit for boy.
“He was always wearing it when he was a little fella and so I started to get into it. It became my team and I’ve been Spurs ever since.”
Mitchell added: “I like Mousa Dembele. I love the way he controls the middle of the park.
“He’s really strong but he’s also got that killer instinct to find a pass. That’s the kind of position I like to play in our game – to control the field and be able to move the ball around nicely and set up a lot goals.
“He has confidence on the ball too – I love watching him play.”
Mitchell was one of the guests of honour as Tottenham kicked off their pre-season trip Down Under with a 2-1 defeat to Juventus at the MCG on Tuesday.
This morning he showed Spurs legend Ledley King and four current players, including Erik Lamela and Kieran Trippier around the Hawks’ Waverley Park training facility.
The Aussie showed the Tottenham VIPs a few skills with the oval ball.
He said: “Their skills are terrible but the speed with which they improved was impressive!”
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