HAWTHORN will ‘lick its wounds’ and get straight back to business ahead of a do-or-die semi-final clash with Adelaide on Friday night, says defender Brian Lake.
The Hawks could not match West Coast Eagles in their qualifying final on Friday night, going down by 32 points, and now face the long road if they are to reach a fourth consecutive grand final.
Lake said while the loss was disappointing, he believes the experienced Hawks will bounce back immediately.
“I guess you could say we’re going to have to do it the hard way now,” he said after Friday night’s match.
“We’ve probably been lucky the last couple of years, we’ve won the first final and been able to play it at our own ground.
“We are a very experienced group and we’ve got a lot of guys with a lot of finals experience.
“Some of the boys have been through this before, losing the first final, but we’re very capable of winning the next two games and reaching what we want to reach.”
Lake said positivity would be the key, as the Hawks prepare to face the Crows, who defeated Western Bulldogs in an entertaining elimination final on Saturday night.
“We have to lick our wounds and bounce back as quickly as possible,” he said.
“We’ve just got to stay positive, have a good week out on the track and just tidy up a few things that we didn’t execute in the game.”
Lake, who was swung forward in the second half against the Eagles, said the Hawks were confident they could follow in the footsteps of the Brisbane Lions in 2003 – who lost a qualifying final but went on to win a third successive premiership.
“We know it’s not going to be an easy task,” he said.
“Yeah some sides have done it before and we’ve got the personnel here that are very capable of doing that.
“Nothing worries us – we’ve just got to get our game right, execute the way we want to play and we can be dangerous anywhere in Australia.”
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