FREMANTLE is confident dual Brownlow medallist Nat Fyfe will be able to sustain a prominent midfield role if required this season after making an impressive return from injury as a super sub against Hawthorn on Saturday night.

Fyfe played as a centre bounce midfielder in the Dockers' dominant 69-point win over the Hawks before drifting forward, attending six of the seven centre bounces in the final term and kicking an impressive goal.

DOCKERS v HAWKS Full match coverage and stats

Coach Justin Longmuir said the Dockers wanted to prepare Fyfe to play out the rest of the season after recovering from a foot injury, with a return to the midfield now clearly an option for the 31-year-old.

"We got him into the game at the right time and into the right role and he got a good taste for it. That's what we were hoping for (and) he can build off that," Longmuir said on Saturday night.

"When he kicked his goal he was transitioning forward out of the midfield and he had a midfielder on him. They're the types of looks we want to get for him.

"We weren't getting what we wanted out of centre bounce, so to have that sort of player to be able to influence in different areas is handy.

"He'll get himself up to a level where he's been able to do the role we're asking, there's no doubt about that."

Longmuir said all options were on the table for Fyfe's next match, including playing as the substitute again, with the coach keen to maintain some mystery around his former skipper's role.

"You just get caught up in talking about where we're going to play him, how we're going to play him. I like to keep a few of those things under wraps, because it keeps the opposition guessing a little bit," the coach said.

"We'll look at the best way to prepare him to see out the season. Whether that's another game as the sub, or we play him and sub him out, or we play him and manage him through minutes. There's a lot of different options."

Longmuir said Saturday night's win was the Dockers most consistent performance of the year and their best contested effort, winning the hard ball for the first time this year (137-117).

Star Melbourne recruit Luke Jackson was a big factor, winning 16 of his 24 disposals in the contest and kicking two goals while spending time as a midfielder in his best game for the club.

"He had influence around the ball, whether he was in the ruck or midfield, and I thought he was one of our best pressure players and ground ball players across the ground," Longmuir said.

"He had 13 or 14 ground balls and seven tackles. I thought he was fantastic.

"Sometimes it just takes time for players to feel comfortable in their role, finding their feet at a new club. I thought it was Jaeger (O'Meara's) best game for the club as well, and he's in a similar boat.

"We expect a lot of guys when they get traded to new clubs and for them to perform straight away.

"It does take a little bit of time and he's getting more and more confident and comfortable in his role and that came out tonight."

Longmuir said small forward Lachie Schultz had managed an AC joint issue through the game, with confidence it would not sideline him.

The challenge now was to use the win to "propel forward into the next three weeks", with crunch games against Sydney (SCG), Geelong (Optus Stadium) and Melbourne (MCG) to come.

For Hawthorn, coach Sam Mitchell was left with plenty to ponder, including ill-discipline and an inability to take advantage of midfield ascendency.

"We had a lot of issues in the game, including discipline. The free kicks were [21-10], but it's definitely not an umpire thing," Mitchell said.

"We just weren't disciplined, (we were) too eager, going into tackles with too much energy. Their first two goals both came from free kicks.

"We didn't handle situations well enough, and I think we had some real challenges going forward."

The coach defended captain James Sicily and senior player Sam Frost, who each gave away 50m penalties through ill-discipline which resulted in goals.

"They’re parts of the game which are disappointing from your senior players, but they're not patterns of behaviour for those guys," Mitchell said.

"And I think with Sic, he's been so reliable for us for the whole season.

"They're all new to leadership formal positions, and understanding that they've got a lot of influence on the people around them is part of their learning curve. And they're certainly on that and we're all on that together."