Hawthorn gave themselves every chance to win the game against Sydney on Friday night.

The Hawks registered their highest number of inside 50s for the year, with 63 entries to the Swans’ 39.

The 24 more inside 50s were a massive differential in the Hawks’ favour, the Hawks largest disparity between their opposition so far this year.

Read: Match report - Hawthorn v Sydney

Inside 50 dominance has become a trend for the Hawks in the first two months of the season, winning seven of the eight counts in the statistic.

Ranking third in the league in the area behind Melbourne and Richmond with an average of 56.5 entries, Alastair Clarkson’s side have an average differential of +9.5 entries per game against opposition sides.

But where the Hawks let themselves down was in their ability to generate shots at goal from these entries.

Their Round 8 match-up against Sydney saw Hawthorn kick their lowest tally of goals for the year, booting just 10 for the night.

While their 21 scoring shots for the night was the second-lowest number of the Hawks’ season, behind the 15 attempts they managed in the Round 5 loss to North Melbourne.

Despite holding an 11-point lead at three-quarter time and having six shots at goal to the Swans’ five, the Hawks were unable to capitalise on their opportunities.

A sixth win of the season instead went begging for the Hawks at they kicked 1.5 to the sharpshooting Swans’ five goals straight in the fourth term.

It was the first time the Hawks, who rate number one in the league for goal kicking accuracy, finished a game this season with more points than goals recorded.

Hawthorn fans will be hoping that this performance was as much of an outlier as the statistics suggest.