STAR onballer Sam Mitchell says the leadership qualities of his fellow experienced midfielders played a crucial role in Hawthorn's 51-point win against Fremantle.

The Hawks overcame the absence of injured captain Luke Hodge to easily win the game at Patersons Stadium on Saturday night.

And the efforts of Brad Sewell (29 disposals), Mitchell (24), Jordan Lewis (22) and half-back Grant Birchall (24) helped the visitors dominate the inside 50s, 61 to 34, and control the game.

While Mitchell refused to take too much of the credit himself, he said the way Sewell, Birchall and stand-in captain Lewis stepped up and led by example in Hodge's absence gave his side a big advantage.

"I've been able to step away from the formal leadership stuff a little bit this year, which has been good. Other guys have stepped up and played some important roles for us and I'm happy to let them keep doing that and I'll just plug away in the background," he said.

"I thought Sewell was excellent, particularly early in the game when the game was really there to be won. He stood up really well ... Birchall and Lewis and some of the others were great too.

"It was just a really even contribution from the whole side and that's the thing that's stood out from what we've been able to do over the past month or two.

"It's very hard to pick best players and things like that for us and we're pretty happy when it's like that because it means everyone is getting their job done."

The heavy rain and strong wind throughout the game forced the Hawks to make significant changes to their tactics and Mitchell said the way they dealt with that showed impressive maturity.

"It was our style tonight to not be too cute with handballs and to try to kick the ball a bit more," he said.

"We don't normally play long, boring, down-the-line footy like we did tonight but the weather said we had to and we did it pretty well."

Victory saw the Hawks climb to third and gave them a small buffer from top-four challengers Carlton and West Coast, but the 28-year-old said that wasn't a big concern for now.

"We've got some big games coming up. We've got the Kangaroos next week and they've been playing some good footy, so we're just focusing on them and trying not to look too far ahead," Mitchell said.