Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell says he’s really proud of his young side’s finals push but has warned players it “all comes to nothing” without a win over Carlton on Sunday.

The Hawks salvaged their season from a 0-5 start by winning 11 of their next 14 games and face a Blues outfit that has slid from the top two to eighth, making the MCG clash a finals-shaping one for both teams.

As he toyed with a recall for tagger Finn Maginness to manage the threat of Blues skipper Patrick Cripps, Mitchell said he didn’t need to play up the occasion in what is effectively an elimination final for his side.

“I think they’re all smart boys, we don’t need to give them too much messaging,” he said on Friday.

“The players are well aware of the what the season looks like, what the ladder looks like and how up and down it’s been for almost every team in the competition.

“It’s a fantastic opportunity for us – it’s going to be a big crowd against a quality team that are in a similar position to us.”

Mitchell said he had been proud of Hawthorn’s consistency, with the only “bad game” he could point to since round 5 being the away loss to Geelong last month.

“I think every other game for the last couple of months, the players have been able to produce close to their best footy, and that’s all you can ask for,” he said.

“We’ve got a young side who are loving the challenge and the excitement of playing every week, and I feel like we’ve been able to bring fans on the journey with us.

“I’m rapt that we’re in this position, but potentially it can all come to nothing as soon as this weekend if we can’t get the job done.”

Mitchell said out-of-contract forward Chad Wingard was in the same boat as veterans Luke Breust and Jack Gunston when it came to the wait for a decision on his future.

Wingard, 31, has battled constant injury setbacks since rupturing his achilles late last season and has failed to play a senior game this year.

He returned through the VFL from his latest calf injury last week on limited minutes.

“It’s not our focus right at this point in time. He’s obviously just got back in after another little injury, and Box Hill has got a bye this weekend, so it was good for him to get some game time last week and get himself back,” Mitchell said.

“Chad and I are chatting fairly regularly, and he hasn’t quite been able to get a consistent run at it to get himself into the senior side.

“But as far as the future goes, we leave all of those discussions … we’ll hold those for later in the year.”

AFL football boss Laura Kane was at Waverley Park on Friday to tour Hawthorn’s facility and watch training after the Hawks reached out to the league.

“Really kindly from the AFL, they said ‘if you ever want us to come have a look and see how your operations are going’ … they can assist us with how we operate,” Mitchell said.

“(Kane) obviously works very closely with Rob McCartney and the other (football bosses) to see if we can improve our processes, so she’s coming down here on a Friday which is nice.”