A CHANCE to regain composure and catch their breath at half-time was a big reason behind Hawthorn's second half revival against Melbourne according to defender Josh Gibson.

The inaccurate Hawks went into half-time with a paltry 3.13 to its name but slammed on eight goals in the third quarter to regain the lead.

"We were a little bit inaccurate in the first half but in terms of our indicators we were definitely in the game. We had plenty of the ball but we weren't kicking straight. We just needed to calm down a bit, relax and get back to what we do well and I think we showed that in the third quarter," Gibson said on Monday afternoon.

The Hawks still kicked 11 behinds for the quarter, but Gibson said the kicking was much better than it had been in the first half.
   
"I think it did improve after half-time. A bloke misses one, then you get a bit of a chain. It's not deliberate, a couple of them hit the post and it puts a bit of pressure on," he said.

"You don't think about it too much. After half-time we sat down and relaxed a bit and did a pretty good job after that."

The Hawthorn win prompted Melbourne captain Brad Green to label the Hawks finals contenders. But Gibson was not buying into the finals talk so early in the season.

"For us it was just good to finally get the win. We put in so much hard work over the pre-season and finally getting a win on the board is a positive but to read into that that we're finals contenders after round two, I don't know about that," he said.

The Hawks take on Richmond this week, with Gibson more than cautious after the Tigers impressed in their first two games against Carlton and St Kilda.

"I watched a fair bit of their game against Carlton. I thought they were really good and then they backed up against St Kilda on the weekend. There is no way they can be taken lightly," he said.

"They have got some younger guys who have really stepped up and then some of their older guys like Deledio who was great on the weekend and they've got great ball users like Cotchin in the midfield. If you take them lightly you will definitely get hit between the eyes."