Damien Hardwick noted their improved form also comes down to personnel.
"As we've seen Port Adelaide is a great example. All of a sudden, they're starting to get their cattle on the park and they start winning," Hardwick said.
"That's not all of a sudden, can Ken (Hinkley) coach? We're all a by-product of our players.
"If I've got my players on the park, I'm a really, really good coach - trust me."
Hardwick also put the win down to what he calls "simple brilliance" - doing the fundamentals of the game well.
Specifically, seven of Hawthorn's eight first-half goals had come from marks.
"At the end of the day, spoil. Pretty easy," Hardwick said.
"We tidied that part of our game up after halftime, Kingers (assistant coach Adam Kingsley) did a good job getting his backs to get back to simple brilliance."
...
Hawthorn's Sam Butler was denied a goal on debut by fellow first-gamer Bigoa Nyuon in the third term.
The Richmond backman created enough doubt with his desperate lunge on the goal line for the score to be confirmed a touched behind on video review.
But the review process went on too long for Hardwick's liking.
"Could they possible take any longer? There's got to be a chop-off time with that," he said.
"Crikey, I could have gone down and gotten a cappuccino and walked back up."
https://www.wellingtontimes.com.au/story/7738131/richmond-hang-on-for-afl-win-over-hawks/?cs=11941
