Dismissing it as a storm in an AFL media tea cup, Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell has brushed off speculation about his captain James Sicily.

Mitchell said there are no problems with the All-Australian utility's groins and the Hawks coach also has no concerns with Sicily's kicking.

It comes as the Hawks come off losses to fellow top-four hopefuls Gold Coast and Brisbane and prepare for Friday night's MCG blockbuster against top side Collingwood.

Hawthorn are in the midst of a testing mid-season stretch, with the Western Bulldogs and Adelaide to follow ahead of their round-15 bye.

But whatever might be causing Mitchell frustration - he thumped a hoarding behind him in the coaches' box last weekend - he made it clear before Wednesday training that his skipper is not one of those issues.

"The groins aren't an issue. He's working really hard on his game," Mitchell said

"He played really well last week. The thing about Sic is he's led us really well ... his leadership has been really strong through the tougher periods, in particular.

"You look at the last couple of years. When we've needed players to stand up, he's often been that guy.

"Has he played perfect footy this year? Of course not, but no-one has - but I thought he improved significantly last week."

Mitchell bristled when pressed on Sicily.

"His groins are fine - he's playing every week, there's no reason that his kicking has anything to do with his groins," he said.

"Go watch all of his kicks and tell me which ones you think he could do better. Bring me back, show me some vision, but I'm really happy with how he's kicking.

"I can get you all the kicks he's done, that hardly anyone in the competition can pull off, and he's done them over the last month. That's a storm in a teacup."

After winning their first four games and looking like world beaters, the Hawks are sixth with a 7-4 record.

Mitchell knows his players are keen media consumers, so he sees part of his job being to temper the extremes of opinion around how the Hawks are going.

"You're all much more frustrated as a media group than we are. We look at our game earlier in the year and we were saying we're not quite as good as that," he said.

"We're looking at it now and saying we're not quite as bad as that, either."

But that does not mean Mitchell stays even-tempered, hence his outburst last weekend.

"It (his hand) is fine, no worries. It was quite soft behind it (the hoarding), thankfully," he said.

A big challenge for the Hawks, as always, will be curtailing Nick Daicos, who torched North Melbourne last Saturday night when the game was in the balance.

"Will we give him attention? Certainly. But will we do everything in our power to shut him down? That's to be determined, because if you do that you obviously give up something else," Mitchell said.

"Otherwise everyone would do it every week."