WHEN Jack Gunston pulled up from a lead, clutching his hamstring, we had no idea what was to come.

Then James Sicily, cleaned up in a stunning pack mark taken by Mitch Edwards, ran from the field grimacing, swinging his arm.

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After a stint on the bench nursing a shoulder "stinger", the skipper returned, soaring high to take his own powerful grab in the final minute of the game.

He kick-started a run that resulted in a Gunston match-winning point, the evergreen forward having returned earlier after a bout of cramp that kicked in during the third term of Hawthorn's stirring one-point win over Geelong on Easter Monday.

"I'm not usually big on the war analogy, but it felt like that. I think we had at least three, (including) both debutants came off with the blood rule. It was one of those games, you know," relieved Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell said.

"The fans who came along for that – I think it was Hawthorn's third or fourth biggest home and away crowd (84,712), and home game ever. People come out because they want to see a game just like that, even though perhaps the skills weren't as nice as we would have liked as coaches, but that was a game where you needed to lean on everything. 

"When you win a game by a point, a lot has to go right, and the resilience of every player, of every staff member goes into winning it. So we all sleep pretty well tonight."

Gunston has said in numerous post-match interviews that he suffered cramp, but there'll still be a watch on the integral forward, who turns 35 in October.

"It didn't look great, did it? I saw him lead out and I saw him go to the hammy and I was thinking, 'oh, that's not ideal'. We started doing our contingency [planning]. He stayed out there and, you know, (you're thinking) that's good, that's good," Mitchell said.

"And then they got him off, and they said he was fine, and he came back on. So I haven't had a full medical update, but the fact he came back on – having done a couple of hammies before – it's pretty unlikely that he's actually done that. I'll have fingers crossed, but we won't know more for a couple of days, I'd imagine."

In what was effectively a beautiful mess of a game, both sides blew many chances to take hold of a high-pressure match, with skill errors oddly adding to the spectacle, rather than detracting.

"It must have been good being a neutral supporter, it was a bit tense for the supporters and people involved in both teams. Early in the season, you maybe give a little bit of room to the players, because a lot of it was poor execution on both sides, and almost the case of the team that could have a bit of composure and take their chances (would win)," Geelong coach Chris Scott said.

"There were some strange moments late, some 50-50 calls as well that could have gone either way. I don't think we played well all game. I'll have to look at it a bit closer. I'm never happy to lose, but I think they had their chances to win it late, and we would have almost stolen it. 

"In the end, with the score the way it was, it looked like it was the other way around. I'm not sitting here saying we were completely outplayed and blew our chances when it mattered. From early in the game, we weren't executing in the way we can. That's a bit disappointing, but it's also a bit of a round three, round four thing.

"I didn't think we quite hit our straps. We got in a position to win the game, but I'm not sure whose lack of composure was worse, we certainly had our chances, but there's no doubt they had theirs as well."

Scott said Jeremy Cameron suffered a knock, but played out the game in a hybrid wing-forward role.

"He got a knock in this game. I'm not exactly sure what the feedback is on that, but he was obviously okay to keep going, but I thought he was influential up the ground," he said.

"I always think he's important for us. He's one of those players that even when his impact isn't as obvious with ball in hand, he's a challenge for the opposition. It was a deliberate decision for us to have him up the ground.

"I think (the knock) was more to his body. His (previously broken) arm is fine."