HAWTHORN will have to play more than one quarter of good football to have any chance of beating West Coast in next Sunday's Grand Final rematch at the MCG, according to coach Alastair Clarkson.
And it may have to do so without skipper Luke Hodge, who has a suspected broken arm.
The Hawk skipper will have scans on Monday night or Tuesday morning to determine the extent of the damage.
The late blow compounded the Hawks' early season woes with Jarryd Roughead, Brad Hill and Liam Shiels already on the sidelines.
The disappointed four-time premiership coach said the Hawks were lucky to be in the contest at three-quarter time after such an ordinary first half, but were so poor in the final quarter they did not deserve to win.
WATCH: Alastair Clarkson's full post-match press conference
"Every indicator that we rate ourselves on in the last quarter was poor," Clarkson said.
In that final quarter the Hawks had 15 fewer kicks, 13 fewer contested possessions, and lost the clearances 16-5 to concede 32 more points to the Cats.
That the lapse followed an outstanding third quarter where the Hawks gained the lead after being five goals down at half-time made it an even more bitter pill for the coach to swallow.
"We're going to have play a little bit more than a quarter next week if we're going to get over the line against West Coast," Clarkson said.
The Hawks' sure ball-handling and kicking deserted them for three quarters as they continually handed possession back to the Cats.
Whether it was fumbling after winning the first possession or kicking down the line to a teammate out of position, Hawthorn couldn't generate scores from clearances or win the aerial battle.
Clarkson said it was an uncharacteristic performance.
"[We] fumbled a lot of crucial balls, particularly early," Clarkson said.
"We were getting our hands on the ball at stoppage but then fumbling and giving it back to them and despite us winning the first possession they were winning the clearances, which is unlike us."
So badly did the rot set in that the coach noticed at one stage the contested mark count was 0-9 in the Cats' favour.
The switch and run that makes Hawthorn so damaging was missing too, with Geelong doing a good job in stopping the outlet kick.
He played down the loss of Jonathon Ceglar who withdrew on Monday morning with a back spasm, saying it would not have mattered who was inside 50 for the Hawks with way the ball was being delivered.
However Clarkson saw the performance as an aberration rather than an indication it was going to drop off the pace in 2016 as it chases a fourth premiership.
"These guys have been proud players for a long time and they served up below their best this afternoon," he said.
