RYAN Schoenmakers says the Hawks were far from their best in Friday night’s loss to Port Adelaide.

The Hawks lost to the Power by 22 points at Etihad Stadium, which makes a qualifying final trip to Perth almost a certainty.

“It’s always disappointing to play in a loss like that,” Schoenmakers said.

“The scoreboard flattered us in the end – Port played really well and didn’t allow us to get our game going.

“We just didn’t play up to our standard of footy.”

While it was a disappointing result for the Hawks, Schoenmakers again proved his credentials as a swingman.

After starting forward, the 24-year-old was sent deep into defence when Brian Lake was subbed out of the game, spending time on Power spearhead Jay Schulz and impacting a number of key contests close to goal.

“A few times it was not looking good for me – I just had to fight as hard as I could just to get a hand in or something,” Schoenmakers said.

“You never want to be in that position, but their ball movement was just too quick and we couldn’t stop it earlier.”

The Hawks will be out to atone for the loss against Brisbane Lions at Aurora Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

Schoenmakers said the Hawks would not take the Lions, who will be fighting to avoid the wooden spoon, lightly.

“We’ve said it before this season, that anyone on their day can win – it doesn’t matter where they’re placed on the ladder,” he said.

“It’s such a tight competition this year so we know we’ve got to be on our game every time we step onto the field.”

 


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