He hasn't looked at it – and won't.

The free kick that had the football world, particularly premiership coach Paul Roos, talking has not had the same effect on Hawthorn's jack-in-the-box forward Paul Puopolo.

Roos, in his Fox Footy role, labelled umpire Andrew Mitchell's decision to award an in-the-back free kick against Adelaide tackler David Mackay to Puopolo "as bad a decision as you'll see".

Puopolo just laughed the hysteria off this week.

"I haven't really looked at it (and) I don't want to, to be honest," Puopolo told AFL.com.au.

"We've reviewed the game already and I'm focused on the Gold Coast game now.

"There's probably going to be another incident in the next couple of weeks where (commentators) will say the same thing. I just take it with a pinch of salt."

Puopolo, at 29, is suddenly one of the Hawks' elder statesmen and on track to play his 150th match in Round 18 against Fremantle in Perth.

Luke Breust, Ben McEvoy, Liam Shiels, Isaac Smith, Ben Stratton and even Jack Gunston may reach the same milestone this season.

But there was a chance Puopolo could have joined fellow premiership stars Sam Mitchell and Jordan Lewis in departing Hawthorn at the trade table last year.

Coach Alastair Clarkson had discussions with Puopolo, Breust and Billy Hartung about rival clubs' interest at the same time before holding fire.

The interest was justified in the 173cm goalsneak, who kicked a career-best 34 majors in 22 matches last season and had just signed a one-year contract extension to keep him at Waverley Park until the end of 2018.

"That was more the hype around Hawthorn, because, obviously, there were some big names (up for grabs) and they were just seeing which players could go," Puopolo said.

"Nothing came from that for me. I just came in, did my stuff, trained and got ready for pre-season. It didn’t bother me.

"At that stage I was getting married (to partner Carmel), so I wasn't worried about that – I was more worried about getting married.

"Everyone's name was probably put up at one stage at Hawthorn … I'm not worried about getting traded, because once I'm at the club, I love the club and play for the club."

Read: The Glenferrie Ghost shares his thoughts on Hawthorn's season start

Puopolo has won three flags and almost 80 per cent of his matches since the Hawks plucked him from SANFL club Norwood as a 22-year-old in 2010.

With that in mind, Hawthorn's 0-2 start to the season is not sitting comfortably with him.

"I don't like losing, I don't think anyone does," he said.

"I'm pretty competitive, even when it comes to a handball game or something out at training – I want to win everything.

"Obviously, we're trying to improve and another thing is looking at the future and we want to keep building for that.

"What we want to do is play some really good footy and show our supporters we're still capable … and know they're not going to have to wait five or six years for us to build again."