The Hawks sit in seventh spot on the ladder with a 6-3 record but are well placed to win their next three games, ensuring they remain firmly in top-four calculations.

However, statistics show they are not the team they once were, and the loss to Sydney on Friday night has prompted many in the football world, including Sunday Age columnist Matthew Lloyd, to doubt whether they can seriously challenge this season.

Rioli, preparing to celebrate Indigenous round in Brisbane on Saturday where the Hawks will face the struggling Lions, said his team still had the premiership belief.

"We feel we still have the personnel and game plan to do it. Last year, we didn't go so well (at this stage of the season). I think we are in a better position than last year, winning a few more games," he said.

"As long as we keep racking up the wins, we'll see where we are at the end of the season. I think we will really challenge in the finals."

The Hawks had five wins after nine rounds last year but this year have slipped in terms of percentage, disposal differential and contested-possession differential and are conceding, on average, 23 more points per game.

Rioli said the eight-goal win over the Eagles at the MCG in round two had been the only match where the Hawks had truly shone.

"I think there has only been one game really - that was probably the West Coast game. We played the way we want to play. Like I said before, other teams have got better and are really challenging us," he said.

One area of concern has been a drop in scoring (from 107.2 points this time last year to 96) and goal-kicking options, exacerbated by the absence of Jarryd Roughead, who is fighting cancer. Injuries to other players, including skipper Luke Hodge, have also hurt the Hawks' style.

"We haven't been playing the footy we wanted to this year but we still have a lot of blue sky (ahead) and improvement to do. We will, hopefully, get a lot better as the season goes on," Rioli said.

"We will keep, hopefully, racking up the wins and then, as Clarko (Alastair Clarkson) says, put ourselves in a really good position at the end of the season."

Along with injuries, the Hawks have had to deal with other issues. Rioli missed the win over Fremantle because of an illness of a family member in the Northern Territory, while wingman Brad Hill has this week been charged with assault over an incident during the pre-season.

"It's been a tough battle for the club over the last couple of weeks but we're a resilient group and we'll definitely all pull together," Rioli said.

Rioli was on hand at the club's Waverley base on Wednesday to provide advice to players who took part in a match between the Eastern Eaglehawks and Haileybury. The Eaglehawks, an Aboriginal team established in 2014, are the Hawks' affiliated Indigenous under-21 team.