Hawthorn Coach Sam Mitchell pointed to his side's consistency of effort in regard to what pleased him most on the back of the opening round win over North Melbourne at the MCG on Sunday. 

The Hawks started the Sam Mitchell era in style, overcoming the Kangaroos by 20 points in a hard-fought affair.

Mitchell said he was pleased with his team's ability to work through the challenges of the game and ultimately come away with the victory. 

"I was really proud of the boys' effort, I thought the effort and intensity around the ball for the whole game was really strong," Mitchell said in his post-match press conference. 

"We didn't get as much reward for effort as we would have liked for a lot of the game, but our boys really deserved the win in the end on the back of a consistent four quarters.

"We had some challenges throughout the game - we lost Maxy Lynch so we had Conor Nash come into the ruck - so it did take us a while to settle and figure out how the game was being played, but we had a lot of sore and tired boys at the end of the game so I think that means we left it all out there today." 

See the full press conference below.