ESSENDON beat Hawthorn at its own game at the MCG on Saturday night, according to Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson.

For much of Clarkson's 12-year reign, the Hawks have been the most polished ball-users in the competition, maintaining possession better than any other team, especially during their 2013-15 premiership era.

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But Clarkson said Essendon had been far cleaner by hand and foot in its 25-point victory on Saturday night.

The Hawks coach pointed to Essendon's dominance of uncontested marks (128-76) as the most compelling evidence of its superior ball control.

"The rule of thumb for me is if a team wins uncontested marks early in a season by that margin you're going to be in some trouble, but having said that strangely enough we had our chances," Clarkson said.

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"We kicked 12.19 and some of those goals I'm thinking we usually nail, but that's poor football when you don't convert your chances.

"We had more inside 50s than Essendon, we had the ball in our half more than Essendon, we had more scoring shots than Essendon, yet … you wouldn't have thought Hawthorn were controlling the game, Essendon certainly did.

"We could find of plenty of reasons why we lost the game tonight, (but) by and large Essendon were just cleaner and more polished with the ball, and for a long period of time that's been the way that we've been able to play.

"So we'll get better at that. We'll try and take stock from this loss and get ourselves ready for the Crows next week."

Cyril Rioli suffered a corked thigh late in the first quarter of Saturday night's game but played out the match, finishing with eight possessions and one goal.

Clarkson said the injury had "probably impacted" Rioli's performance, but expected the star forward would be fit for the Hawks' round two encounter against Adelaide next Saturday at the MCG.

"We don't see Cyril as quiet as that very often. I think he copped that corkie just before he missed that pretty simple shot at goal in the first quarter," Clarkson said.

"I don't want to make excuses for him. While he was out there playing, he was okay to participate and compete, but he copped a knock that meant he probably wasn't as effective as what he could normally be.

"He copped it at the 20-minute mark of the first quarter and played out the game with not significant enough discomfort for him to leave the ground and not participate, so he should be fine (to play against the Crows)."

Hawthorn is also set to be bolstered in round two by the return of former skipper Luke Hodge, who missed the Bombers clash because of a club-imposed suspension.

"He played out at Tullamarine today against the Bombers (VFL team) and got a good run under his belt," Clarkson said.

"I think they won by a small margin in pretty blustery conditions out there. He'll be available for us to play next week."