HAWTHORN lies eighth after Sunday's loss to the Brisbane Lions, and half-back Grant Birchall says the mid-season break has come at a crucial time for the players to refocus and get the premiership defence back on track.

The Hawks are 6-6 at the mid-way point of the year and will drop out of the top eight if they lose to West Coast at Subiaco on June 27.

This would result in even greater speculation about Hawthorn missing the finals the year after winning the flag, the first time it would have happened since Adelaide in 1999.

But Birchall and his teammates aren't dwelling on any such thoughts, and all the talk after the 42-point loss at Aurora Stadium in Launceston was of using the week off to their advantage.

“We’re back to the pack, I think. A lot of teams now are six and six,” he said.

“We’ve got to go into the break, freshen up, we’ve got to get our bodies right, get our minds right and get back."

The Eagles have had an up-and-down year themselves, and went down to a resurgent Richmond on Saturday at Docklands, leaving them 3-9 and 12th on the ladder.

But West Coast have beaten the third-placed Western Bulldogs, Melbourne and Port Adelaide in the west this season, and would love to add the defending premiers to that list.

“We’ve got West Coast over in Perth after the break so we can only concentrate on that and hopefully get a win and move forward," Birchall said.

“We get a few days off so guys can go home or whatever and try to take their minds off footy and both mentally and physically try to get a bit of a break, so from that point of view it [the week off] is crucial.”

The 21-year-old Tasmanian, who along with Brad Sewell and Brendan Whitecross re-signed with the Hawks last week, was obviously disappointed with Sunday's result at the club's second home, but felt confident it would bounce back during the second half of the season.

“It was pretty ordinary, particularly in the second half,” he said of Sunday's loss, in which the Hawks only booted one major after half time.

“We just had no momentum, we couldn’t get our hands on the footy to use our running game and when we started to use our running game in the second quarter we just over-used the footy, handballed probably a little bit too much, and went down the skinny side of the oval way too much.

“I’m pretty confident everyone can bounce back. We’ve just got to get back on track and move on pretty quickly.”