FREMANTLE is in "a bit of a rut" following a grinding six weeks, coach Ross Lyon says.

After watching his side look "second-rate" in their 72-point loss to a rampaging Hawthorn, Lyon pulled no punches in assessing the club’s biggest loss under his tenure.

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"We expected to come down and play better," he said. "They were too strong around the ball, stripped us of the ball and spread and we couldn’t go with them. They made us look second rate, really," Lyon said.

"I think we acknowledge the last six weeks has been a bit of a grind for us.

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"We’ve used conditions and those sorts of things probably more than we should have and maybe the reality is we’re in a bit of a rut where we need to score."

However, Lyon was at pains to point out his side’s position atop the ladder still reflected an overwhelmingly positive season.

"On the surface, I think teams can make you look like that and they certainly did that (and) we would have liked a higher output," he said.

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With just six goals for the afternoon, the Dockers’ recent forward issues are bound to be front-and-centre when the loss is dissected during the week ahead of next Saturday’s match against Carlton at Domain Stadium.

"Clearly we’ll be assessed poorly, but that’s reality and what we need to do is come and review, identify some areas. Our model is identify what we need to improve, bring our effort and try and improve," Lyon said.

"We sit here disappointed. We sit here with our tail between our legs. You can’t defend the indefensible or dispute what occurred so we deal with reality and we try and learn from it and we need to get better quickly.

"You put it in context. We played a very good team. We came down to do some things we didn’t do. They did a lot of things we thought they’d do, if not everything."