Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson has expressed his dismay regarding the umpires' wearing of a lime-green uniform in the Hawks' tight three-point win over Richmond at the MCG on Sunday afternoon.

The AFL admitted they made a mistake allowing the umpires to wear pink last week for the Melbourne v Western Bulldogs ‘Field of Women’ match, and Clarkson could not hide his anger as to why the umpires did not choose a different colour for this match.

“There is no rocket science in there obviously - why would you wear that colour when one side is wearing gold and another side wearing yellow - it’s absolutely ludicrous,” he said after the match.

Clarkson said he was relieved to collect the four points, conceding his side was lucky to score a win over a side that is still searching for its first win of the season.

“There were a lot of errors which you get when you have two sides down on confidence - we had plenty of chances to put some scoreboard pressure on Richmond and we could never get ourselves out to a three-or-four goal margin,” he said.

“That’s what happens when you’re a bit down on confidence, we’ll keep working on things - it’s just good to get the four points.

"We haven’t had four points in six or seven weeks.

“It was the potency of our forward line and a couple of special little blokes like (Cyril) Rioli and (Carl) Peterson down there that can make something out of nothing that gives us the points in the end - we were pretty lucky to win.”

With captain Sam Mitchell and key forward Lance Franklin returning to the senior line-up, it was another player - star recruit Shaun Burgoyne - who impressed the coach.

“He just looked polished and sharp - he just knew what to do with the ball in certain situations. He wasn’t anywhere near his outstanding best but he certainly made a contribution for us,” Clarkson said.

Admitting he took a gamble by bringing Mitchell, Franklin, Burgoyne and Wayde Skipper - playing his first game for the club -all in for the one match after injury layoffs, Clarkson said he believed their best was just around the corner.

“It could have blown up in our face a little bit in terms of their work rate and their ability to run out the four quarters - a lot of them are senior campaigners so they will get better with the run.”