SAM MITCHELL and his side head into their bye with a "missed opportunity" following an inaccurate six-point loss to the Western Bulldogs on Friday evening.

The Hawks flew out of the blocks to lead by nearly five goals at the main break, but kicked one goal from 12 scores in the second half to fall despite recording nine more scoring shots in the battle.

HAWKS v BULLDOGS Full match coverage and stats

"We go into our bye now… we'll finish in the top four with a missed opportunity right in our rear-view mirror. So, we look at this game and think the Bulldogs did some really good stuff, and they played really well, and they took away a couple of things in our game, but we still had a lot of entries, we had enough chances to win the game, we just couldn't take them," Mitchell said post-match.

The Hawks dominated clearance, with the first nine of the match, and 10 more than the Dogs by half time, but things turned after that as the visitors made it a physical fight and matches – or bettered – the Hawks around the ball.

"Some of our best footy of the year was played tonight, and some of our worst. So, they really took their chances, and we weren't able to take ours," Mitchell said.

The inaccuracy at goal is something that will "keep (Mitchell) up for a couple of nights", but he hopes to get back the important trio of Tom Barrass (hamstring), Conor Nash (neck), and Jack Gunston (foot) following the bye.

A significant sub-plot to the match was the battle between James Sicily and emerging Dogs forward Will Lewis, with the two fiery personalities repeatedly clashing throughout the evening.

It was a specific match-up Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge identified early in the week during preparations, and it really started to bear fruit in the second half.

"We didn't think it was executed the way we'd like at the start of the game, and then it was probably executed on the terms that we discussed prior in the second half. So, obviously that created a bit of tension in the game, but we thought Will really did his job and played his part on the night," Beveridge said.

It wasn't the only spotfire that sparked throughout the match, with skirmishes emerging everywhere as the Dogs made things highly physical to get the game back under control.

"The players were pretty flat and disappointed with themselves at halftime," Beveridge admitted.

The Dogs' coach also defended his decision to bring Cody Weightman straight back into the AFL side – bypassing the VFL – following a 637-day layoff with a knee injury.

"People don't understand the player, maybe not even the game. Ultimately, if we didn't play him tonight, we're on a six-day break into a Thursday. If we had played him tomorrow against Box Hill (in the VFL), there's no way he's coming up for the Adelaide game, so we're going to wait another two weeks. So, people just need to do their homework," Beveridge said.

"But having him back was sensational, he's just so courageous."