Richmond coach Damien Hardwick believes recent strong form against Hawthorn counts for little when the two teams face off at the MCG on Sunday.

The Tigers have won the past two encounters against the Hawks, but they are more concerned with finding their best form after a 2-3 start to the 2014 season.

“We have taken in some good form against them, but does it carry any weight this time? Probably not,” Hardwick said.

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“They’re a form side of the competition, had their first loss on the weekend, and still played some pretty good footy.

“At various stages, we played some really good footy.

“We’re not far off, we know what we’re doing well, and we know the areas we have to improve.  We just to make sure we iron those inconsistencies out of our game.”

Despite Richmond securing two wins from its first five games, Hardwick believes there has been an improvement within the team this season.

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“I think our talent’s improved, we’ve found players — (Ben) Griffiths has had an outstanding year, David Astbury has (also), two players that didn’t play last year. We’ve brought in (Sam) Lloyd, (Nathan) Gordon, (Matt) Arnot — all these guys have contributed really well,” he said.

“We bring back ... three of our best six players in Maric, Deledio, Rance, all of a sudden the quality of our side gets a lot better.

“We’ve just got to hang tough where we are at the moment, nail these next two games before the bye, and get these guys back, and it will be onwards and upwards from there.”