Despite ex-star Tom Mitchell’s disclosure that the club’s feedback approach caused his departure last year, Hawthorn football head Rob McCartney has endorsed it.

Mitchell, now a Collingwood premiership player, told his Ball Magnets Podcast last year that he “knew they (Hawthorn) wanted me out” after being unfairly singled out and targeted during a game review session with teammates.

McCartney stated in an interview with Kane Cornes on SEN that he has since made contact with Mitchell.

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“I’ve actually since spoken to Tom and importantly I acknowledged how he feels,” he said.

“But in contrast to that, I’ve also listened to Will Day on our best and fairest night on Saturday and how he shared similar honest feedback he received and how it was the catalyst for important reflection, behaviour change and a resolve to improve individual performance and team performance.”

Day, who Mitchell recalled was one of the teammates present for his scathing review, said in accepting the club’s best and fairest award on Saturday night he was grateful for the culture of feedback at the club.

“I guess when you hear them at the time you probably don’t like it, but it probably took until the end of the year and over the off-season until it really did click,” Day said.

“I think that’s something that our club, I’m really grateful for, that we can have those conversations and we know that it’s all because we want everyone to be better.

“The love within the group has been great.”

McCartney referenced Day’s comments and said feedback was part of the game.

“I think the thing I’d like to say about this is there’s no escaping that feedback is a required component. It’s probably the lifeblood of high performance environments,” he said.

“What I’ve noticed about our young emerging group is that they want to get better every day and they’ve made the decision within that there’s a need for some robust and honest conversations.

“When that happens, you need to be able to exhibit the behaviours that are accepted within the group and when you don’t, I think there needs to be conversations around that.”