HAWTHORN coach Alastair Clarkson has refused to blame the absence of skipper Luke Hodge and vice-captain Jordan Lewis for Saturday's loss to Greater Western Sydney.
The pair was absent from the line-up that faced GWS in Sydney on Saturday after copping three and two-match bans, respectively, from the AFL Tribunal following their ill-disciplined acts in last week's match against North Melbourne.
Click here for full match coverage
"We have had plenty of times over the course of the past two or three years where we've missed key personnel and we've been able to cope really well," Clarkson said after the match.
"That's no excuse tonight. We were beaten by a hungrier side.
"GWS played some really good footy. We had our chances to win the game."
The Hawks could potentially be outside the eight at the end of round six after suffering their first ever loss to the League's newest club.
Five talking points: GWS v Hawthorn
Hawthorn led by 27 points midway through the second term, held a 15-point edge during the third quarter and were 18 points clear early in the final term when Billy Hartung stormed through the middle of the ground and booted a sensational on-the-run goal.
However, the Giants took advantage of some careless ball use from the usually polished Hawks to reel in each deficit and storm home to post a famous 10-point victory.
"Some aspects of our game were OK but by and large when you get three opportunities like that to put some scoreboard pressure on the opposition and you surrender those leads, then you perhaps don't deserve to win," Clarkson said.
Clarkson said he would have liked to be in a better position than a 3-3 win-loss record after six games.
"We are a bit disappointed that we're 3-3," Clarkson said.
"It would have been nice to be ahead of the ledger at this point of the season.
"It just means we've got some work to do over the next five or six weeks to try to get some wins and get ourselves into a better position on the ladder than what we are at the present time."
Hawthorn is yet to register consecutive victories in 2015.
While the Hawks had plenty of the footy - the club amassed 414 possessions compared with GWS' 348 and led the inside 50 count 56 to 53 - they were let down by too many turnovers that allowed the Giants to quickly move the football to an open forward line.
"We need to fix up that area of our game. We are usually a really really potent side at being able to force pressure on the opposition and create turnovers like that in the middle of the ground ourselves," Clarkson said.
"We turned the footy over far too easily and gave them easy supply.
"We are proud of the fact that we really compete hard but we didn't compete hard enough tonight. GWS were better around the clinches than what we were."
Hawthorn hosts Melbourne at the MCG next Saturday, followed by the Sydney Swans (MCG) in the Grand Final rematch and Gold Coast (Launceston).
