Richmond coach Damien Hardwick is not fussed with his side's patchy pre-season form, claiming they were "too advanced" this time last year.
The Tigers backed up last week's come-from-behind JLT win over Melbourne with yet another second half resurgence against the Hawks in Saturday's pre-season clash.
Richmond were down by as much as 40 points against Hawthorn but clawed out a 95-87 win behind the lead of their skipper Trent Cotchin.
Upon reflection of the last couple of pre-seasons, Hardwick is happy with where his side is currently at.
"I look back at last year and think we were a little too advanced at this time of year and this time around we're not quite to the level that we were and we've got some work to do," Hardwick told reporters post-match.
"But we're reasonably happy to walk away with a win tonight and to get some really positive performances from some of our players (was pleasing)."
Hardwick admitted to not being completed satisfied with the result and highlighted some areas the club would focus on in the lead into round one.
"It was a weird game. I think if you ask us and Hawthorn, we're both pretty happy with the half we played each and then there's a half we'd be disappointed in," Hardwick said.
"We were disappointed with our ability to hunt the contest and I think the second quarter was probably as poor of a quarter as we've played forโฆ I was going to say the preliminary final, to be fair.
"It was disappointing but we readjusted a few things, spoke about a couple of things at half-time and they got to work and got some pretty good performances out of our players that will make it tough for selection in round one."
The Tigers open their home and away campaign against Carlton on Thursday March 21.
