Hawthorn had won eight consecutive games heading into the match, in the process becoming the raging premiership favourites. But having been upset by Damien Hardwick's side, the Hawks now face an uphill battle to earn a home a final – finding themselves six points adrift of their opponents this week – second-placed West Coast.

The Tigers deprived the Hawks of the ball, having 98 uncontested marks to Hawthorn's 56, a dramatic swing from the reigning premiers' uncontested mark differential season average of +14. However Mitchell didn't think that there was much mystery about what Richmond had done, believing that while the Tigers had played well, his own side's effort was not optimal.

"We feel like we played OK without playing to our absolute best, but we need to play better," Mitchell said at a chilly Waverley Park on Monday.

"They played really well, put a lot of pressure on us, forced us to do a lot of things that we didn't really want to do. By the same token we feel like there's a fair few components [of] the game that were in our control that we didn't handle all that well.

"So I don't think that if we've played them again they're definitely going to win because they've unlocked some sort of secret."

Mitchell said he hoped that the Hawks were just like many of the game's most successful teams – relatively easy to understand, but much harder to stop.

"To be honest, we don't really hide the way we want to play. I think everyone knows the way we want to play," he said.

"When we don't bring our 100 per cent effort, and they have a few tricks up their sleeve, they can get the job done."

Mitchell, 32, said that he was conscious of the finals permutations that surrounded this Saturday night's game against the Eagles, but that it was still too early to fret about who the Hawks will play in week one.

"Ideally you wouldn't want to travel to Perth in that first week of finals, but that's not to say it can't be done," he said.

He acknowledged, however, that Hawthorn's sluggish start to the campaign was working against the team.

"Although we've been going along OK, some of the early season form is really costing us now as far as ladder position goes," he said.

Mitchell also laughed off the post-match comments of his coach Alastair Clarkson – directed at Channel Seven commentator Wayne Carey.

Carey had criticised Mitchell a week earlier during the Hawks' 138-point thumping of Carlton, contending that the four-time best and fairest winner would not make any other team in the competition owing to a lack of leg speed.

While Mitchell said in the aftermath of the Blues game that he was not flustered by Carey's comments, Clarkson reignited the issue following the Tigers game when irked by a reporter questioning the legitimacy of the concussion substitution of defender James Frawley.

Clarkson asked whether Carey had been the one to raise the issue initially.

"A coach doesn't have anything to do with it [the concussion check], get that. So whoever said it, was that 'Duck' was it? Carey? Another great call by Carey," Clarkson said.

Then asked if he was still annoyed at Carey for what happened a week earlier, Clarkson had another dig at the North Melbourne great. "It was silly, mate. We should open a file up on Wayne Carey."

But Mitchell could see the funny side of his coach's fury.

"You don't want to rub Clarko up the wrong way," Mitchell said.

Then asked what happens if one does "rub Clarko up the wrong way," Mitchell jokingly recommended that the reporter who asked the question "find out."

"I'll sit back and have a laugh," Mitchell quipped.