Speaking to the media following Thursday night's game, Senior Coach Luke Beveridge credited the Hawks for their ability to bring the pressure consistently throughout the game while also acknowledging the Dogs' need to respond better in those circumstances.

Here's what Bevo had to say after the game: 

On the result:

“It’s disappointing, obviously, the result.

“When you’re discussing what is required and what is going to unfold in the game, everyone knew—off the back of some bad press and scrutiny over a period of time—that they were going to find a way in the contested and pressure stakes. And they did, so they get credit for that.

“We knew we were going to have to work our way through it. I think that was a problem for a fair portion of the game.

“When we actually got out, we put it back into pressure. And when we got out, we didn’t use the ball particularly well.

“With all that happening, in the third quarter, we found a way to stay in it, and then it felt like we were coming. We just needed to get one or two on the scoreboard early in that last quarter, and the game was up for grabs.

“As much as the Hawks definitely got the upper hand with that side of the game, it’s probably as marginal—as we were going, we were still in it.”

“We’re searching for any sort of positives.

“They had us in a stranglehold, and the times we looked like maybe we’d break out of it, they got us back in it.

“We’re half-and-half, six and six, and we know that’s part of our game that needs to improve for larger portions of the game.”

On games against top teams:

“I always think that to make the leap into the top part of the competition, if you’re getting beaten by 15 or 20 points here and there, it’s more than that.

“The margin on the scoreboard sometimes doesn’t tell the full story.

“Whether it’s not providing enough chances—you know, 18 inside 50s in the first half just isn’t going to be enough. It means our forwards are going stale and they can’t get into any sort of rhythm.

“What we’ve done in recent times against some of the better teams and in the pressure of the game—we turn the ball over too often and too blatantly. That’s put us on the back foot at different times, and it’s hard to get momentum in the game when you’re doing that too often.

“That’s skill, that’s game sense. Some of it’s a surprise, some of it isn’t depending on who is doing it. We’ve just got to keep doing our best to improve it, train it, and keep focusing on what we can achieve.

“I’ve been talking to the players about making the leap. The growth and making the leap into that top upper echelon means that individually, through the lines of the team, we’ve got to make more than just little increments of improvement—we’ve got to make big ones.

“We’re doing our best to explore and discover it, but tonight, we didn’t.”

On Aaron Naughton and forward-line supply: 

“We just let him down. There’s no supply.

“We obviously moved Rory forward because Weddle was a problem early. It was even numbers, they didn’t have an extra, so with their key backs—and he’s just an outstanding athlete—we managed to curb his influence for a period of time in the middle parts of the game. But it was one of the reasons why we swung Rory to help.

“Buku is an undersized key forward. Sometimes that hurt us in the ruck as well.

“Credit to Lobby—he went there and did his best. He hit the scoreboard a couple of times.

“It’s an area of the ground where we’ve fought, we’ve bitten, we’ve scratched—we’ve managed to get some bigger scores against some of the better teams. We’ve scored reasonably well.

“We’ve let them get too many.

“It wasn’t a night where we found too many positives through the ranks.

“I thought Joel Freijah was pretty good across that half-back area. James O’Donnell, Laitham Vandermeer forward—there were some moments, but not enough consistency through the game from enough, unfortunately.”

Games after the bye:

“I think what you do is you go overboard in making sure you don’t get caught in the barriers—that once the gates open, you jump and you’re ready to go.

“We had trained pretty well in the last week and felt like we prepared for the intensity of the game well enough.

“Maybe it was a factor, but it definitely wasn’t an excuse.”

On turnovers on the night:

“Whenever those turnovers happen—and especially when you have a bit of time and you give them a bit of a look with not many layers behind it—it is deflating.

“We’ve got to do that less, we know that.

“I think the players have been pretty good in the games, and tonight is another one where that has been prevalent. They’ve just still stuck at it.

“Hawthorn, in the end, were just too good at the physical side of the game.

“I think we lowered our colours.”

On next week and a potential Sam Darcy return:

“That will be part of our full process every week really with Sam.

“It won’t be the priority next week, as you can tell. The way we’re talking—we’re talking about the bona fides, the things that you have to be good at to be a formidable team, and we didn’t establish that tonight.

“We’ll work through that.

“At the moment, it seems as though Sam might be available, but I don’t want to commit to that because there’s still a bit of water to go under that bridge.

“It’s a disappointing night all around. We’ve had a pretty lean month and a half. We’ve got to get going again.”