Unfortunately, the first-round loss to the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba last Saturday night was not how we expected the season to start, but we've now have to put that defeat behind us.

For us, we need to get on with our preparation for the Easter Monday clash against Melbourne at the MCG. Saturday night’s match was very un-Hawthorn-like performance and we played our worst football for quite some time.

We can look for reasons why we played that way, but I genuinely believe it was just one of those days where nothing went right. I believe teams sometimes produce performances that are below expectation, for whatever reason.

If you could find the answer as to why this occurs, you'd be a very successful coach or psychologist.

We've got a lot to prove this year, but it's interesting to see a number of experts writing us off and questioning our game plan already. However, we concede we've only got ourselves to blame for our performance against the Lions.

We are a lot better than what we showed last weekend and we're looking forward to turning it around against Melbourne.

We obviously reviewed the match and you could easily dissect it by 1000 pieces, but we, and the players, came to the conclusion that we did not do the things we have trained for or played in the pre-season games.

Our intensity and aggression at the football and body was below expectation, while our skill level was also not up the standard we require.

In fact, we were 16th in the competition for disposal efficiency for the round, Our adherence to the game plan and structure was also very poor.

So, for whatever reason, we believe it was out of the box and we’re looking forward to a much improved output against the Demons.

This Monday, we'll be able to draw on the return of Shane Crawford and Campbell Brown, who are both coming back from suspension, while Ben Dixon is also set to play after being an emergency last round.

Richie Vandenberg and Joel Smith will again miss, but the return of Crawford, Brown and Dixon will be very handy.

We've copped a fair bit from our supporters and the media for round one, but remember the season consists of 22 matches. You only have to look back in recent years at teams struggling early in the season before hitting their straps. Sydney is a classic example.

So, let's not write off the season after just one loss – we didn't lose by 100-odd points. With roughly five minutes remaining, we reduced the deficit to just two goals in a low-scoring affair and we weren't too far away from winning.