HAWTHORN defender Taylor Duryea admits he sometimes second-guesses whether to lay a bump because of the Match Review Panel's increased scrutiny of head-high contact.

The young Hawk's comments came after his heavy collision with Port Adelaide's Kane Mitchell during Hawthorn's 14-point loss at Adelaide Oval on Saturday night.

Mitchell ran onto a floated handball from skipper Travis Boak and after gathering possession inside 50m had only a split-second to look up before he wore Duryea's big hit to the chest.

The bump floored Mitchell momentarily but the tough midfielder soon got back to his feet and carried on.

WATCH: Duryea's brutal bump

It was an increasingly rare instance in modern football that a player chose to bump instead of tackling and Duryea said it was a fine line to tread.

"I think sometimes there's second-guessing when you feel someone might get to the ball before you or you're not sure who's going to get to it," Duryea told AFL.com.au.

"But in that circumstance, I thought I was a chance to get the ball and we ended up just colliding, the ball bounced free and it was play on.

"It was just one of those things. Sometimes in games you collide with people and that was the case on the weekend."

The decision to bump, tackle or to win the ball is made in just fractions of a second, Duryea said.

"It's see ball, get ball. In the case where they're going to get the ball first, you attempt to tackle," he said.

"As we know bumping is pretty dangerous, especially if you get it wrong."

Duryea is renowned for his physical brand of football and has been groomed to fill the hard-nosed back-pocket role vacated by retired premiership player Brent Guerra.

He's only played 27 games – including all nine this season – but already the 23-year-old exhibits the hallmarks of a future leader through his uncompromising actions and his mature words.

Duryea paid tribute to the League-leading Power after their impressive win on Saturday night but also praised his teammates' fighting spirit.

"They're a really good side and they made us pay on every single mistake that we made," he said.

"We're not too disappointed with the effort. Every guy put in and we were there pretty much to the end and they only just kicked away.

"So (losing by) 14 points considering Port are on top and we were there challenging with multiple outs and had younger guys stepping up was really good for us."

It was the first time the Hawks have suffered back-to-back losses since the 2012 Grand Final and round one, 2013.

But the reigning premiers should bounce back emphatically against Greater Western Sydney at the MCG on Sunday.

"In round one they beat Sydney and they've got that game and if they can bring it then we're going to have a bit of a headache," Duryea said.

"Hopefully we can just match them early."

Twitter: @TravKing_AFL