HAWTHORN coach Sam Mitchell has explained his inspired decision to move James Sicily forward in the win over Fremantle, saying he had to maximise his captain's talent as he struggled in defence.

Sicily's switch forward at UTAS Stadium on Saturday proved to be a match-winning move as the Hawks boosted their finals chances with a 13-point victory.

HAWKS v DOCKERS Full match coverage and stats

With his troublesome shoulder appearing sore in the first half, Sicily was moved forward in the third quarter, and he kicked three goals – including two as the Hawks charged home in the final quarter.

"I think as coaches we're always looking to maximise the talents of our players and I thought he probably wasn't competing quite as well behind the ball. He wasn't having a significant influence," Mitchell said.

"When you have a player of his calibre who is not as dominant as you would like, we obviously have the scope to move him and he's got just an appetite to be in those positions. 

"I was rapt he was able to hit the scoreboard and have a good impact for us in front of the ball."

With their ninth win from their past 12 games, the Hawks are – at the moment – just percentage outside of the top eight.

And their win sets up what is shaping as a monster clash against Collingwood, which is 8-7-2, at the MCG next Saturday. 

"If we looked at the season, obviously started slowly, had some good form, got to the bye, we played West Coast over there and played pretty well, then we go to Geelong and get a touch-up," Mitchell said. 

"This game was in the calendar because this was an important game for us because it keeps us right in the hunt. 

"If you look at the ladder it's pretty close and now it doesn't get any bigger than it's going to be next week."

The Hawks punished the Dockers for a wasteful third quarter, when Fremantle dominated but kicked just 4.6.

Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir felt conversion was the difference between the sides as he lamented the Dockers' inability to make the most of their chances.

"We haven't had a great history here as a club and they play the ground really well, but I thought we prepared really well, I thought we competed really well," he said. 

"I thought maybe it was a game that came down to who took their chances better and they took their chances better in the end."

Of the third term, Longmuir said: "I think we played the game we wanted to in that third quarter, especially the first two thirds of it. 

"We played at our end, created opportunities, started the quarter with four points, I think we kicked 4.6 for the quarter and we just needed to put a bit more of a gap when we had the ascendancy in the game. 

"But to their credit they played a really good brand of footy, competed hard, I thought they got us on the outside, especially at stoppage, they're able to finish their work off. 

"I thought they were able to win their contests ahead of the ball, their forwards were able to win contests against our backs. We weren't able to do that as much at our end and that probably was the difference in the game."

Longmuir hopes to have ruckman Sean Darcy back for next week's clash at home to Melbourne, while he also expects captain Alex Pearce to be available.