Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell won’t publicly utter the words “James Sicily tax” but is certain his fiery captain is being watched more closely by AFL officials than other players.

Sicily, who has a history of tribunal run-ins, escaped suspension for kicking Essendon’s Andrew McGrath in round one after he was initially offered a one-match ban.

The Hawks challenged the match review officer’s grading of the incident - arguing it was low impact rather than medium - at the tribunal and had Sicily’s penalty downgraded to a $2500 fine.

It left Sicily free to play against Melbourne at the MCG on Saturday.

“Umpires do their scouting the same way that the players do,” Mitchell told reporters on Thursday.

“If James is in a certain position then you know that people are going to be looking for something, and whatever you look for you’ll find.

“He knows that he needs to perform at his best and makes sure he stays within the rules of the game, no different to anyone else.”

Essendon got under Sicily’s skin and blunted 135-game defender’s attacking play from the back half, employing Matt Guelfi as a defensive forward to good effect.

Mitchell admitted Sicily’s on-field behaviour has been an internal focus in recent days.

“We have discussions every week and obviously this week it was a little bit of focus about how he’s performing and how his role is,” Mitchell said.

“I’m really confident that he’s got all of the tools in his kitbag now to make sure that he’s able to perform well, both on the field himself as a player but also as a leader.”

Mitchell is adamant Sicily and the Hawks will handle an opposition’s defensive forward “better than we have” going forward.

“We’re continuing to work through how that happens and teams don’t do that every week because it is difficult to make that work,” he said.

“Essendon did a really good job of it last week and James and (defensive coach) Kade Simpson will work hard on making sure that ‘Sic’ can have an influence that helps the team.

“Sometimes that will be offensive and his intercepting that he’s well renowned for. But he’s also a fantastic defender and sometimes it’s going to be getting back to your roots and make sure you defend really well.”