RELIEVED Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson has lauded the "soul-searching" efforts of his senior players in their dramatic come-from-behind win over Carlton at University of Tasmania Stadium on Sunday.

The Hawks were well below par in the first half in Launceston, trailing by 36 points early in the second quarter before willing themselves into the game in the third term and ultimately prevailing by five points.

Clarkson admitted the Hawks were "counting our blessings" after a victory that had shown "some real grunt and character" after a "dreadful" opening.

HAWKS EDGE BLUES Full match coverage and stats

The Hawthorn coach attributed his team's response – it kicked 10 of the next 13 goals before Carlton added the last two – to "endeavour and personal pride", and an acceptance that they "needed to dig pretty deep".

"(It was) 15 or 20 minutes of soul-searching, not from me to the players but more the players themselves, to say they're proud men who weren't playing to the level that they're usually capable of playing to," Clarkson told reporters after the match.

"A lot of our senior players had significant second halves that allowed us to get back into the contest.

"In a game like that where you're giving up a five-goal lead at half-time and the game is always going to go down to the wire, it was pleasing to get ourselves in front at the end and win a game of footy that could so easily have slipped away after the way we started the game.

WATCH The thrilling last two minutes of Hawthorn v Carlton

"Full credit to Carlton – they played a really good brand of footy early on – but we just made some dreadful errors, particularly early. They kicked half their score in the first quarter more or less.

"We need to look at some things in our game but they're on the climb, even though their win-loss (record) doesn't suggest that. To get a victory against them is pretty important for us. It gets our season back to 3-3.

"We're not doing anything spectacular at the minute, but the competition's not either right now."

WATCH Alastair Clarkson's full post-match press conference

Hawks star midfielder Jaeger O'Meara was best on ground with a career-best 43 possessions (23 contested), nine clearances and a goal, and had 26 touches by half-time, but Clarkson wants his team to spread the load more.

"While it was a tremendous, lionhearted performance from him, particularly in the first half, if we're relying on one bloke to do that …," Clarkson said.

"It was really pleasing that guys like (James) Worpel and (James) Cousins and Mitch Lewis and the younger ones, who were perhaps down in the first half and couldn't find their way, came back and made pretty important contributions for us in the second half.

"That meant that Jaeger didn't have to try and carry the whole midfield for us. As well as he was playing (in the first half), it wasn't doing us any good.

"We want an even contribution from all our players. We're not searching for anyone to be a star."