ROSS Lyon has blamed Fremantle's missed chances for his side's finals exit to Hawthorn, and concedes the Dockers need to find more avenues to goal for the club to keep pushing for its maiden premiership next season.

A litany of errors cost the Dockers the chance to put the Hawks under prolonged scoreboard pressure in their 27-point preliminary final defeat at Domain Stadium on Friday night.

While the home side pushed hard in the final term, closing the margin to just 11 points, Tommy Sheridan's dropped mark in the defensive 50m let the tiring Hawks off the hook, as Cyril Rioli snapped truly.

It summed up a nearly-but-not-quite performance from the Dockers. But it was certainly not the game-deciding mistake.

When Chris Mayne sprayed his set shot wide in the first quarter it took the wind out of the Dockers' sails after a blistering two-goal start.

WATCH: Ross Lyon's full post-match media conference

From having the opportunity to move 16 points up, the Dockers then coughed up two off-the-ball free-kicks – one a controversial decision against Hayden Ballantyne on Matt Suckling – that opened the door for the Hawks' first two goals.

And Jonathon Griffin hit the post after the half-time siren from directly in front. If his shot had sailed through, the Dockers only would have trailed by 11 points at the long break.

Six things we learned from Fremantle v Hawthorn

There were plenty of examples but, in the end, Hawthorn had one more scoring shot but kicked five more goals to run out 27-point winners.

"The seven teams that have beat them (this season) reduced their entries and their shots. I think we did that pretty well but they kicked really straight," Lyon said.

"But you can't make those sort of errors off the ball. I'm more concerned with discipline off the ball.

"Ifs, buts, maybes, but in the end they were too good."

The Dockers' cause wasn't helped by Nat Fyfe copping an early whack to his sore leg, with the superstar hobbling throughout the match after starting on the bench.

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Fyfe still collected 24 touches, won a game-high nine clearances and laid six tackles, although he couldn't exert his full influence on the contest.

Lyon said the Brownlow Medal favourite only trained once this week, "lost a bit of his hop" and needed an injection to play in the preliminary final.

"He was never not going to play. I paid tribute to his mental toughness because he comes in with huge expectation and own personal standards," he said.

"He'll be sore tomorrow. I thought he started slow and willed himself into the game. He's going to lead this club eventually."

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Despite the possible retirements of skipper Matthew Pavlich and Luke McPharlin, Lyon said the Dockers' list is "in pretty good shape".

But replacing the veteran duo would be a huge task, especially Pavlich as a key forward.

"We acknowledge that we would like to improve our offence. We would like more players of the calibre of Michael Walters and what Matthew's (Pavlich) been at his best," Lyon said.

"I don't see us with a salary cap advantage to go and get a power forward through for an extra million dollars.

"That doesn't happen. So we're going to have to find a way to get more front-end talent through. We might get a midfielder through and play Fyfe forward."

Lyon acknowledged he needed to improve all aspects of his side's performance.

"You've got to improve your list, you've got to improve your coaching panel and you've got to improve your system. And you've got to aim to grow," Lyon said.

"I'm not sitting here thinking I'm a genius. I'm sitting here thinking 'I'm not getting it done'.

"I've got two years to run on my contract, they brought me over (from St Kilda) to win. We're winning a fair bit, we created some history (finishing on top of the ladder) … but fallen short.

"So I'm sitting here knowing I need to improve and I'm hungry to do that and we're pretty keen as a club to do that."