Richmond coach Damien Hardwick has acknowledged the midfield dominance of Hawthorn star Tom Mitchell, but doesn’t want the Tigers to become preoccupied with the ‘ball-magnet’ Brownlow Medal favourite in next Thursday night’s qualifying final clash at the MCG.

Mitchell had 42 disposals and kicked a goal when the teams last met back in Round 3.

The Richmond strategy at the time was to “control the collective, rather than the individual”, with captain Trent Cotchin spending time against him in a head-to-head battle, before Jack Graham tried to stifle him.

Hardwick revealed they were likely to again back in their structure, rather than focus on one player.

“It's an interesting question. He's a terrific player, there's no doubt about it,” Hardwick said.

“The thing is, they've got a guy by the name of Isaac Smith, they've got [Jack] Gunston, they’ve got [Luke] Breust . . . they've got a lot of good players.

“You can sit there and manage to look after one of them, but sometimes it can take away from your structure as well.

“We'll back our boys in. If he gets out of hand, the reality is he's probably going to get 30 anyway, so we'll look at that system and see how it goes . . . We'll back in our system versus the opposition most weeks.”