Sam Mitchell has defended his decision to throw Tom Barrass forward despite Andrew McQualter indicating he didn’t appreciate the move in the closing stages of Hawthorn’s comfortable win over West Coast.

Barrass has kicked only one goal in his 157-game career but found himself starting in the goalsquare opposite former teammate and usual Eagles forward Oscar Allen.

The West Coast premiership defender looked all at sea in attack, not touching the footy at all in the last quarter.

Asked about what he thought of Barrass’ move to full forward, McQualter paused for a long moment before responding.

“I probably shouldn’t say because I don’t know what was going on in their team to be honest,” he said.

“That’s their prerogative I suppose.”

Asked about why he paused, McQualter said: “I haven’t seen Tom Barrass play forward too often in his career.”

Further pressed and asked if he found the move disrespectful, McQualter said: “I’m not going to speak to what the Hawks do and their decision making.”

Mitchell defended the decision saying he wanted to explore the 29-year-old’s versatility for later in the season.

“Sometimes having that flexibility is important for us. We’d like to be able to do that, we obviously do that with James Sicily and giving Blake Hardwick continued exposure as a defender,” he said.

“TB we haven’t tried forward, but if we need a contest in front of the ball at some stage then having him go forward is something that we want to be able to have the option of if it’s viable for us.

“He didn’t look completely comfortable there so it’s something we’re going to have to try to expose him to a little bit more over the coming weeks if we get the opportunity.”

Mitchell did concede he wanted Barrass to kick his second career goal against his former side.

“I mean of course, I think he’s kicked one goal in his career, and it was from a 50m penalty so to get him to kick one would be great,” he said.

“Almost every player that has played 100 games plus, you want them to have a couple of positions and TB as a full back, it’s very difficult for him to go anywhere else if he hasn’t been exposed to it.

“We really held off on it with James Sicily for probably 18 months but now he’s been able to go forward at different stages and win us the game. I’d like if Sicily is playing well behind the ball, I’d like to be able to move someone else.

“TB I think is going to be a viable forward for us in time.”