HAWTHORN coach Sam Mitchell says he was effectively a "glorified fan" as Dylan Moore lined up for goal in the dying seconds to win Saturday night's clash with Collingwood.

Instead, Moore's shot from 40m out narrowly fell short as both teams ended on 92 points apiece.

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It was the first time in VFL/AFL history that the same teams have played in two draws against each other in one season.

And Moore held the fate of both matches in his hand as the final siren went. It was his goal after the siren in round eight that sealed a tie against the Pies.

"To be honest, the thing I thought about as he was running in was I didn't want (him to) step off the line and it's play on. Just get him to take the whole 30 (seconds), make sure he doesn't end up with the play on. So, you've got no control at that time," Mitchell said.

"When the scores were level, it was like, do we want a draw? Or do we need to win this game? It was quite an odd moment. You know, when you've been in the game a long time, you sort of feel like you've seen those things, but I certainly haven't seen that."

But Mitchell backed in the decision-making of his side in the dying moments.

"We got ourselves a shot. It's a hugely pressurised environment … we get a shot on goal around the siren to give ourselves a chance. I thought we handled it pretty well, giving ourselves a chance," Mitchell said.

"There's a couple of things that we could have done better, but when the game was on the line, we gave ourselves a chance to win. So that's about all we can hope for."

Hawthorn's top four hopes remain in its hands with one game remaining, but arguably had more to lose with the result.

And that sentiment was born out in Collingwood coach Craig McRae's demeanour after the match. Once out on the field, McRae was gee-ing up the Pies' cheer squad as if they had just pulled off a remarkable win.

"Look, I was probably a bit over the top with the crowd, but I don't want to sit and not celebrate what we just did. Of course, we want two more points, but here we are and celebrating the small wins that we got tonight," McRae said.

"Our want and desire to get after them was there for everyone to see, and we got energy from that. And when we had pressure in the game, we dominated those phases and the scoreboard at those times, and particularly before half-time. We're playing a top-four team, a team that wants to be a top-four team, and so they're always going to have threats and strengths… but we stay true to who we want to be."

The Pies' pressure game was evident, winning both the disposal count (385-359) and tackle count (91-54) throughout the match, while leaning on a brigade of inexperienced players to carry the side through.

"You look at it from our lens, and we've got five players under 10 games," McRae said.

"It's always hard to know how to react after a draw, but I thought we won a lot of things tonight, and the scoreboard wasn't one of them, but we won a lot of things, and we're just immensely proud of our group right now."

McRae is hopeful that some key experience will return for next week's final-round clash with Brisbane, including Harry Perryman, Patrick Lipinski, Brayden Maynard and the retiring Steele Sidebottom, who fell ill on Saturday morning and was a late withdrawal.