HAWTHORN is suffering a "bruised ego" after its loss to Richmond on Sunday but coach Alastair Clarkson believes his team isn't far off the top teams.
On a warm afternoon at the MCG, the previously undefeated Hawks belied their six-day preparation to come from 39 points down early in the last quarter to kick five of the last six goals and, briefly, gave the reigning premier a scare before going down by 13 points.
TIGERS TOO GOOD: Full match coverage and stats
Clarkson conceded that although his players had been given something of a lesson for much of the contest, he was proud that they found another gear in the final term, and hoped to carry that momentum into their big clash with Melbourne at the MCG next Sunday.
"When the whips were cracking early, Richmond were a better side, there’s no doubt about that," Clarkson said post-match.
"We were really excited with the opportunity – we thought it was a great chance to measure ourselves against last year’s best side and one of the best sides in the comp at the present time.
"We fell a bit short, particularly early, but we’re really pleased that we ran the game out. That should give us a bit of hope.
CLARKO'S CALL: Hawks coach defends head-high debate
"They're a good side – they won the flag last year for a reason. They're coming off a 10-day break (and) a loss to Adelaide last week, so we knew they were going to really serve it up and they played really, really well early and they got the game played on their terms.
"We were playing catch-up for the rest of the day, but towards the end of the third quarter the whole crowd, including our coach's box, thought, ‘Gee, this could be anything from a two or three-goal loss to a 10-goal loss.’ But to the credit of our players we turned it into a two-goal loss, which is a pleasing aspect of the game.
"We’re a work in progress as a side, we’re still finding our way, and we played one of the better teams in the competition and found ourselves short. But we’re not short by that great a margin.
"We’re just not quite there yet, but we’ll keep toiling away and try to find a better way of going about it next week against the Demons."
REVIEW THE REVIEW: Five talking points
The Hawks were unable to capitalise on their ascendancy around the stoppages. At half-time they led the clearance count 25-10, and at full time 39-31, with ruckman Ben McEvoy (40 hit-outs) and midfielder Tom Mitchell (a game-high 42 possessions and 12 clearances) performing strongly.
However, Clarkson conceded Richmond had a greater spread of contributors through the middle and were supported by one of the competition’s best defences.
WATCH: Alastair Clarkson's full post-match media conference
"Probably the quality of what they were able to get from their midfield was stronger than ours," Clarkson said.
"The most significant thing about the Richmond side (was that) there must’ve been eight to 12 occasions where they just used their sheer body strength, particularly with the fend off, to break tackles of ours that then created overlap play.
"And some of those were from stoppage, so it allowed them to get free air, shoulders out, have a look at their forward line and spot up kicks.
"Sometimes the stats can be deceiving.
"We won the clearances, we were happy with McEvoy’s game, we were happy with our hunt of the ball, but the quality of what we were able to do with it once we did get it wasn’t as strong as Richmond."
