HAWTHORN star Shaun Burgoyne is urging umpires to pay free kicks to stop premiership teammate Sam Mitchell being "targeted" by off-the-ball hits.

Mitchell has copped plenty of heat from opponents trying to put the four-time club champion off his game this season and tagger Scott Selwood got under his skin in Friday night's epic two-point loss to Geelong.

Although Mitchell thrives on the physicality, Burgoyne called on the men in green and his Hawks teammates to better protect the 33-year-old midfielder.

"We need to help him out and protect him a little bit more, but he's one of those guys who loves the fierce, in-tight battles and he's done it for such a long period of time," Burgoyne said.

"It's a hard one for the umpires as well because they want to let the game go and they want it to be a physical game and they don't want to be paying soft, silly frees.

"But if a player is being targeted, like he was on the weekend, I would've thought one free kick here or there would definitely help him when they step over the mark, because a few times off the ball he did get hit."

Mitchell still racked up 30 touches – for the 13th time in finals – and won 10 contested possessions against the Cats, although his normal deadly effectiveness was limited by Selwood's efforts.

Burgoyne didn't want to "whinge and moan" about the attention on Mitchell and said the Hawks needed to be prepared for similar tactics by the Western Bulldogs in Friday night's cut-throat semi-final.

"There's a few times that he was hit off the ball, but you can't pay every single one that's there," he said.

"He just moves on pretty quickly, as do we … sometimes you get them, sometimes you don't.

"I can't really comment too much [on] the umpires and what they're thinking, how they see it, if they do see it at all, but we've got to prepare that he's probably going to get another close-checking player this week and help him out if he does."

Tom Liberatore shapes as a potential match-up after he blanketed West Coast clearance machine Matt Priddis while picking up 22 touches and snapping a goal in the Dogs' stunning elimination final upset.