HAWTHORN will have to play more than one quarter of good football to have any chance of beating West Coast in next Sunday's Grand Final rematch at the MCG, according to coach Alastair Clarkson. 

And it may have to do so without skipper Luke Hodge, who has sustained an arm injury will have scans on Monday night or Tuesday morning to determine the extent of the damage. 

The late blow compounded the Hawks' early season woes with Jarryd Roughead, Brad Hill and Liam Shiels already on the sidelines. 

The disappointed four-time premiership coach said the Hawks were lucky to be in the contest against Geelong at three-quarter time after an ordinary first half, but were disappointing in the final term after working back into the match.

"Every indicator that we rate ourselves on in the last quarter was poor," Clarkson said. 

"You can't win too many games of footy when you just play a quarter of footy.

"We gave ourselves a real chance at three-quarter time but we just played really poorly in the last quarter."

That the lapse followed an outstanding third quarter where the Hawks gained the lead after being five goals down at half-time made it an even more bitter pill for the coach to swallow.

"We're going to have play a little bit more than a quarter next week if we're going to get over the line against West Coast," Clarkson said.  

"[We] fumbled a lot of crucial balls, particularly early," Clarkson said.

"We were getting our hands on the ball at stoppage but then fumbling and giving it back to them and despite us winning the first possession they were winning the clearances, which is unlike us."

However Clarkson saw the performance as an aberration rather than an indication it was going to drop off the pace in 2016.

"These guys have been proud players for a long time and they served up below their best this afternoon," he said.