"We spoke about some things during the week and the boys had a real red-hot crack at that," McKenna said.
"We leaked just before half-time that got it (the Hawthorn lead) out to 17 points. The second half we probably mirrored what we've done over the last four or five weeks."
Satisfied with the enterprise and physicality shown by the emerging talent on his list, McKenna indicated that the major focus now is on the players improving their craft as League footballers.
"I can't fault the boys' endeavour," he said. "It's the thing with any kid playing senior footy, it's just them playing smarter. I can't fault their hardness."
McKenna singled out experienced players like Nathan Bock and Danny Stanley as good performers against the Hawks, but also indicated that it is unrealistic to expect senior players to get the job done every week.
"[We had] individual wins along the way, but collectively we can't sustain it," he said.
"That's something we understand. It'd be like if we took on Hawthorn in an athletics carnival, half way through the relay we're going to struggle.
"We can't keep throwing Bocky and Gary [Ablett] and Jared Brennan and a few of the other blokes out there to pick up the slack for the young kids, but underneath all that the kids are getting better. They're able to push out more minutes of decent football."
Tall forward Tom Lynch, who kicked three goals against Hawthorn, was one of the young players to garner praise from the coach.
"Tommy Lynch is just, I'm very biased with our boys, they're all great kids and Lynchy, you probably love him even more because it's just his work-rate," McKenna said.
"You talk about the second half of the season being hard and it's going to be hard for him. He's missed a bit of the pre-season because of glandular fever, but you just don't have to ask him to work. He's a competitor, he works hard and he got the results today."
Next week the Suns face another stern test against the Western Bulldogs at Metricon Stadium, one of many challenges between now and season's end.
"We've got a massive finish to the season coming up, there's no easy games for us," McKenna said.
"I said to the boys, 'look at that hardness and how hard it's going to be with a smile on your face.' You've got to want to bring it on. Out of this we'll get better."
"You have to go harder. If you do that you'll improve yourself."
