HAWTHORN will request a please explain from the AFL following a disallowed goal from exciting forward Nick Watson on the half-time bell in Thursday night's 52-point win over St Kilda.

Running in for a set shot after the second quarter siren, Watson – and the rest of the stadium – believed he had kicked the Hawks' ninth-consecutive goal to open the match, but it was overturned, with umpires having deemed he ran off his line.

SAINTS v HAWKS Full match coverage and stats

"We'll certainly be going to the AFL to ask about it. It makes sense to me that that is a rule on the other side of the ground. As a right footer, there is absolutely no reason that a player would go wider to give themselves an advantage, and that's what the rule is there for," Mitchell said post-match.

"And it makes sense, but the vision doesn't look like he goes off his line much, but that's the umpire's call and I can accept that. But the fact that you can go off the line towards the boundary and it be called play on ... there's no common sense about that.

"So, I would hope that we get an answer from the AFL, and I'm sure we will, they've been very good at giving us answers and giving us adjustments, they've done that really well. When something doesn't make sense, they fix it pretty quickly. So, why would he run wider to give himself a harder shot and it get called play on. Didn't make a lot of sense, I'm glad it was in a game where individual tiny scores didn't matter, but I hope that's something they rectify."

Mitchell confirmed that his decision to bench Jack Gunston for the duration of the final quarter was about preservation, as the veteran works back from a foot injury that "is a little bit unknown", and was pleased with Will Day's ability to get through his allocated minutes unscathed.

"I think he played 30 seconds more than he was meant to, so we had a bit of a chat about that after the game," Mitchell said of Day with a laugh.

Conor Nash was withdrawn from the side prior to the game with a neck concern, after a spasm experienced during the week, but Mitchell expects him to be available for next week's fixture against the Western Bulldogs.

Meanwhile, St Kilda's poor opening half against Hawthorn was a team-wide failure, not attributable to just one or two players, according to coach Ross Lyon.

That included himself and his coaching panel, after a strategy to minimise the Hawks' intercept game resulted in an error-laden start, in which the Saints failed to kick a goal.

"This, just to be clear, this was a lack of team performance and coaching performances, so we're all in on it," Lyon said.

"They're a really strong intercept team (long down the line), so we wanted to spread the ball … we were going too quick."

It was a worrying drop off for the Saints, who have been a fast-starting side all year.

A lack of early pressure was compounded by their own unforced errors, which left the backline to fight it out in the face of 31 Hawthorn inside 50s before the main break.

"(The) ability to get to them and pressure them and equalise was at the low end," Lyon said.

St Kilda laid just 23 tackles in the first half – 10 fewer than the Hawks – despite recording 48 fewer disposals in that time.

The decision to flip the magnets at half-time proved sound, as a six-goal third quarter put some respect back on the scoreboard, but it was ultimately too little, too late.

"We made some moves, (Jack) Silvagni forward, (Cal) Wilkie higher, (Jack) Sinclair midfield, (Darcy) Wilson to the wing, (Bradley) Hill to half back, and our composed ball use made them defend more than we had, and then we got the front half game," Lyon said.

The club is hopeful to regain the important trio of Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera, Mitch Owens, and Liam Ryan (all calf injuries) next week for its away trip to face Sydney.