Hawthorn captain Sam Mitchell says he has been annoyed by questioning of his leadership position, but admits at times even he thinks Luke Hodge should be skipper.

The Hawks have been forced to defend the choice of 2008 premiership captain Mitchell as their official leader after former club legend Dermott Brereton said on the weekend that Hodge had always been the "spiritual leader".

Club president Jeff Kennett further fuelled the debate by revealing his board had vetoed a decision by players and coaches to make the pair joint skippers, insisting there be only one.

But Mitchell said the debate those comments sparked outside the club was not matched within Hawthorn walls.

"People in the media hear one opinion from one person and they run with it, they think it's across the board," Mitchell told reporters on Thursday.

"I'm sure there's players in our group that think Hodgey should be the captain.

"Sometimes I think that too, because it's just the way he is, he's a fantastic leader, he does some exceptional things.

"When we had our last vote, I was in front and maybe when we have the next one, he will be.

"Internally it's not a huge big saga, the way everyone likes to make out.

"I think we're both very good leaders of our footy club."

In a seeming reference to Brereton, Mitchell said players of past eras did not understand the leadership dynamics of current AFL clubs.

"Leadership in all forms of life, in business, is shared around a bit more and we have a strong empowerment model at our football club," he said.

"... Everyone has to be a leader at some point and that's probably changed over the last 20 years. People that played 20 years ago might not understand that."

But he admitted the debate had got under his skin.

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little bit annoyed about it," Mitchell said.

"I'm not sure why there's speculation about it ... but the support I got from our footy club has been first class."

Meanwhile, Mitchell said Sunday's win over Carlton was the "first big step" back to form the Hawks had taken this season.

While stars such as himself, Lance Franklin, Shaun Burgoyne and Cyril Rioli are all back and firing after injury interruptions earlier in the season, he said it was as much the mental approach that had changed.

He said that would again be the key at the MCG on Sunday against a Sydney side out to rebound from three straight defeats.

"If we come with the application we came with last week and the willingness across the board to attack the footy and play a physical brand of game, then I think we're going to give ourselves a great opportunity to win," he said.

The Swans' form line has been a reverse of the Hawks, starting the year strongly to top the table after six rounds, before their recent run of defeats.

Injuries and suspensions have hit hard, the Swans missing ruck pair Mark Seaby and Shane Mumford, key forward Daniel Bradshaw, key backman Craig Bolton and running defender Tadhg Kennelly.

But, like the Hawks, Swans co-captain Brett Kirk said the mental application was the bigger issue.

"For us it's pretty simple, if we play our role, get everyone contributing and have consistent effort, we're going to give ourselves the best opportunity, but over the past few weeks we haven't been able to do that ... but as Hawthorn showed last week you can turn things around pretty quickly," Kirk said.

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