Hawthorn Coach Sam Mitchell says his side young struggled to handle several high-intensity situations during its 69-point loss to Fremantle on Saturday night.
Despite leading centre clearances 15-10 for the match, the Hawks struggled to handle the Dockers' pressure and make the most of their opportunities in attack.
Mitchell said his side lacked control in several areas, acknowledging that being able to capitalise going forward remained a "real challenge”.
"We really shot ourselves in the foot," Mitchell said post-game.
"I'm getting a little sick of saying it, but by half time we had 29 inside 50s for eight scores.
"When we win clearances, being able to score from it or even lock it in our forward half has been difficult.
"Stoppage wins are great, but being able to score from that and consolidate the territory is the next step forward for us.
"But getting it into our front half and not being able to retain it is better than not being able to get it there at all, which is the issue we had in the second half."
Hawthorn's disappointing loss to Fremantle comes following a competitive few weeks against GWS, Adelaide and the Western Bulldogs.
Despite the result, Mitchell said he still wants to encourage his players to play with high energy moving forward, acknowledging the season would come with its ups and downs.
"We knew they'd be some bumps in the road on this journey," Mitchell said.
"The challenge for our group is being able to play a high-energy brand in lots of different loads of play.
"When we played with high energy, we didn't have the skills to pull it off... and let ourselves down in the final piece.
"But from a leadership perspective I'd rather have a group of players who are prone to going a bit too far and being a bit too eager, rather than trying to spark them up and energise them, which I haven't had to do more often pleasingly.
"We're trying to master the craft of our A-game, I think we know what brand of footy we would like to play.
"We're trying to build things as fast as we can, but I don't think we made as much progress as I would've liked tonight."
Listen to more from Mitchell post-game below.
