A crucial rebounding weapon for the Hawks for several seasons, the Tasmanian has made a hot start to 2013, with hauls of 29 and 31 disposals.
No stranger to finding negating forwards at his side, Birchall accepts it may become more frequent given fellow attacking defender Matt Suckling's absence with a knee injury.
He is ready for it.
"I copped a little bit last year, but I feel as though I can handle it all right," Birchall told AFL.com.au this week.
"It's tough, but you've just got to find a way and dig in."
One team to tag the 25-year-old with some effect in 2012 was this week's opponent Collingwood, with Ben Sinclair clinging to him like wet denim throughout the qualifying final.
The Magpies small forward restricted his mark to just nine kicks and two handballs, his lowest possession tally since round 11, 2008.
But more importantly to Birchall, the Hawks still won the game, with Suckling collecting 18 disposals and having a strong influence.
"I think that night 'Suckers' had a really good game; he got off the chain and played well, and we had a really good win," he said.
"As long as we play well as a side and have a win at the end of the day, that's what matters."
Birchall has learnt ways to respond to the negating tactic, such as playing further up the ground to draw his opponent away from goal, or manning up another opposition forward to create a two-on-one and allow another Hawks defender to get loose.
And even without Suckling in the line-up, he warned opposing teams to put all their focus on him at their peril.
"I might get a little bit more attention, but with 'Mitch' (Sam Mitchell) and 'Hodgey' (Luke Hodge) playing down there, and [Brent] Guerra coming off the half-back line, they can't stop us all," he said.
Hawthorn won all three matches against the Magpies last year and, after running all over West Coast to the tune of 50 points in Perth last week, will enter Sunday's clash full of confidence.
Birchall said the team had worked to improve its delivery into the forward line after the narrow round one loss to Geelong.
"We had a good couple of wins against Collingwood last year, so we'll go in very confident," he said.
"We'll just back our system in like we have done the last couple of weeks, and see what happens."
