WHEN it's all said and done, Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson believes Port Adelaide deserved its eight-point win on Saturday night because it was the better side when it mattered.

The Power rocketed to a sizable lead early with seven unanswered goals and led by as many as 58 points in the second term.

Clarkson said the Power were lucky early in front of goal, nailing eight of their 10 shots in the first term and 12 of their 16 in the opening half. In contrast the Hawks kicked just three goals from 10 first-half opportunities.

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But that luck was homemade, Clarkson said, born of a superior toughness at the contest.

The Hawks rallied superbly and dominated the second half – kicking 10 goals to three. While the opportunity to steal victory was real, Clarkson said a win would have been exactly that – stolen.

"We were coming from a long way back and what we like to judge ourselves on is when the whips are cracking early in games, who's playing the best football," Clarkson said. "To Port Adelaide's credit they were. 

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"It's nearly being disparaging to them when I talk about them having a bit of luck in the early part of the game. They made their own luck by being really hard at the footy and hard at the contest.

"They deserved that because they did play very, very well early in the game…they would have been pretty stiff if they'd dropped that game."

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The coach also lamented his side's inaccuracy in front of goal. The Hawks had more scoring shots than the Power and enjoyed a remarkable 79-43 advantage in inside-50s, but couldn't conjure a winning score. They had nine players kick behinds compared to Port's six.

"The second quarter strangely enough was the quarter that cost us because we were playing a lot better in the second quarter, had a lot of inside-50s – I think we had 20 inside-50s in that quarter – and only goaled twice," he said.

"Had we been able to score four goals to two in that quarter rather than it be two goals to four, then maybe by half-time there's just a glimmer of hope that we can really get ourselves back into the game."