HAWKS captain Sam Mitchell has agreed with Richmond coach Terry Wallace that Hawthorn focused too much on kicking to Buddy Franklin in their defeat to the Tigers on Sunday.

Match statistics show the Hawks aimed for Franklin 17 times, only once kicked to fellow forward Jarryd Roughead, and tried to hit Mark Williams just six times.

"When you look at those stats it is (true we were too Buddy-centric)," Mitchell said on Monday.

"We try and have a bit more of an even balance, normally we do, so hopefully we can keep that a little bit more even."

After the unexpected victory on Sunday, when Franklin was often double and triple-teamed by Richmond defenders, Wallace said the Hawks did seem a little single minded in their avenue to goal.

"I thought they put a few eggs in that basket today," Wallace said post-match when asked if the Hawks appeared to be Buddy-centric.

"When a bloke has been as good as what he's been, when a bloke is nine goals off a hundred, when the opposition know they are in a finals campaign, I don't think they do it on purpose."

Mitchell admitted the stats were pretty damning, and said the Hawks certainly wouldn't like to see those numbers again in post-match analysis.

"We didn't use Mark Williams enough. That's not a stat we'd like to see repeated, we're not going to win enough games of footy with stats like 17 to 1."

However, the skipper scoffed at suggestions the Hawks were conscious of trying to get Franklin closer to the magical 100-goal milestone.

"Certainly not ... he's snapped one around the corner to Ossie (Michael Osborne) and he handballed to Brownie (Campbell Brown) when he could have easily kicked (at goal) himself," he said.

"So if it was about (the) 100 (goals) he wouldn't be doing those sorts of things.

"He’s doing the right things, it’s not his fault that we kick it to him so much, it’s our fault for making the wrong decisions going inside 50.”

Mitchell said the Hawks’ "Buddyconscious” approach was not discussed during the loss.

“It wasn’t addressed during the game, it’s something we’ll have a look at today and we’ll continue to look at when there’s better options on," he said.

"Whether we play him up the ground a little bit to try and take him out of that zone to make us a little less Buddy conscious… but it’s something we’ll look to rectify this week.”

Mitchell was equally as critical of his own performance, saying it featured the worst ball use of his career.

“It’s the worst I’ve used the footy in my career so I’ve had a hundred and twenty something games and it’s the worst I’ve used it," he said.

"I could find it OK but just couldn’t use it. I wish they could have given it to somebody who could kick it a bit better than me.

 “I can’t give you a reason, I wish I could. I just kicked it poorly. It was purely myself, I’m not blaming anyone else. I’ll do a bit of work on the track this week I think.”

The captain said there were no excuses for their poor showing, and that the Hawks just didn't turn up o n Sunday.

“We don’t have any excuses. We’re not training any harder. We don’t have players out being rested. We didn’t have a tough week or anything like that… we just weren’t there to play," he said.

"When you come to an AFL game and you’re not ready to play, you get beaten.”