Richmond have had a lot to think about in their lengthy nine-day break ahead of Sunday’s AFL match against Hawthorn.

The reigning premiers lost the contested ball count by a whopping 48 in last week’s grand final rematch against Adelaide.

Coach Damien Hardwick feels the Tigers were probably lucky to only go down to the Crows by six goals.

They’re also giving away too many free kicks and now they come up against the resurgent Hawks, with midfielder Tom Mitchell in outstanding form.

“You have to find a way to win games when you’re not playing to the level that you know you can,” Hardwick said.

“What we probably expect from our footy club is a little bit better than what we presented last week.

“I know we can play a lot better than what we have been.”

Hardwick said they had spent a lot of time looking at video of the Adelaide match.

“It was obviously disappointing to go down in such a manner … the great thing about a nine-day break is we get to do a lot of research about why that happened,” he said.

“We’re certainly looking for a better result this week.

“You give up those sorts of (contested) numbers, you’re lucky to lose by 36 points.

“It was a good kick in the backside at the right time.”

The Tigers will regain Dion Prestia and Nick Vlastuin from injury and Jack Higgins will make his senior debut.

Hardwick added wholesale changes were not necessary and has great faith in his team.

“We played such good footy in the (pre-season), it probably just didn’t transfer in the first two rounds,” he said, also referring to their scratchy round-one win over Carlton.

By contrast, Hawthorn have impressed in their 2-0 start.

“They’re playing some great footy, they seemed to have wound back the clock,” Hardwick said.

The coach added Mitchell is a major problem – do they tag him, or try to restrict players around the star midfielder?

“He just puts himself in the right place at the right time, every time, and those players are really, really hard to stop,” Hardwick said.

“Do we take it out at the source, with Tom, or try to restrict those guys around him.

“We’ll put some work into him … he was a great player last year and he’s gone up a level this year at this stage.”

Jack Graham was sore after the Adelaide loss, but Hardwick expects him to play and he is certain to spend some time on Mitchell.