Coach Sam Mitchell says the intent of his side needs to improve when it faces Richmond this Saturday. 

Speaking to the media on Wednesday, Mitchell said there were aspects of Hawthorn’s game against Essendon last week that were not at the standard he expects.  

“As a result, we lost in a pretty convincing way in the end,” Mitchell said. 

“We have a lot of work to do on our program. But in a typical AFL sense, you move on – you get your 24 hours to feel sorry for yourself.”

Despite the loss, Mitchell remained confident in the progress of his young side.  

“We’re trying to master our craft and make progress in the direction we want to go,” Mitchell said.

“We’re making some improvements across the game, but that’s the balancing act of every coach is trying to get the best out of individual players, groups of players and the collective team.”

Hawthorn will come up against an in-form Richmond on the weekend, with the Tigers coming off consecutive wins.   

“Richmond plays a really strong brand of football. Everyone respects them as a club, how their team plays is so strong and difficult to play against,” Mitchell said.

“Their system is the thing we need to pull apart more than their individual players.”  

Mitch Lewis is set to be welcomed addition back into the side if he passes a final set of training benchmarks this week following his hamstring injury.

“If he (Lewis) is made available, he will come straight back into the side,” Mitchell said. 

“(Prior to his injury), he was really starting to feel confident in himself.

“He structurally helps us quite a lot, he is a big strong target, he’ll help the other guys down in the forward line.” 

Hear more from Sam Mitchell's press conference below.