HAWTHORN has gone down the rabbit hole as it tries to make sure last Saturday's terrible first half is not repeated.
Port Adelaide scored a club-record 16.9 on the Hawks in the opening half, blowing the rebuilding side away a week after Hawthorn's upset win over St Kilda.
On Saturday the Hawks host Brisbane, another in-form side with premiership credentials, and coach Sam Mitchell said the challenge will be to learn their lessons quickly.
"We went into the depths. We went all the way into the rabbit hole of the first half and worked out why we weren't able to compete with a team as good as Port Adelaide," Mitchell said.
"It doesn't mean we won't be able to the next time and that's our challenge.
"We're always talking about pushing standards. What do we require? What does a premiership standard look like? What does a top-four standard look like?
"And we got a taste of it from a team that has won nine in a row. Some of the things we've been getting away with, we didn't in that game."
As the young Hawks enter the cold, hard days of June and July, the Port-Brisbane double will test their resilience.
Hawthorn at least did not wilt, outscoring the Power in the second half at Adelaide Oval, even though the result was a formality.
"Can we play our A-game against a really good team – if you watched our highlights (from the first half against Port) ... you'd say 'This team has got some good things in their game'," Mitchell said.
"But consistently, over an hour of footy in the first half, we just couldn't do it often enough and withstand their pressure often enough.
"So against Brisbane, you would want to see their consistency of trying to play the right way and getting away with it more often and play in a manner that's really going to challenge them."
The Hawks will be boosted by the return of captain James Sicily from his one-game suspension, but lost fellow key defender Sam Frost to a foot injury that has restricted him since round two.
"He needed a little bit longer break to get it right ... give him a bit of a circuit breaker now," Mitchell said.
He expects Frost to return after their bye, which follows the Lions match.
There was good news on Thursday morning, with in-form utility Jarman Impey signing a three-year deal.
Apart from Impey's return to form after struggling with injury, his optimism and energy have been crucial.
"He's such an energy giver to the rest of our group. Every time something doesn't go well, he's one of the guys saying 'Yeah, but we can do this?'" Mitchell said.
"We talked to the players about who went down the rabbit hole in the first half and just couldn't stop thinking negatively, and who was thinking about the second half – 'No, we came back and it was really good stuff'.
"He was firmly in the second group."
