Hawthorn Coach Sam Mitchell says he was pleased with his side's resilience to hold off the Western Bulldogs' momentum in a thrilling three-point win at Launceston on Sunday.

The Hawks stunned the Bulldogs at UTAS Stadium, recording their seventh win of the season.

After falling on the other side of the fence in several close finishes this year, Mitchell said it was pleasing this time to see his team hold on.

"We've done a fair bit of work on it in just the last couple of weeks, but we're certainly nowhere near our finished product when it comes to close games," Mitchell added.

"We lost against Richmond a few weeks ago where we just couldn't handle the pressure of the game, and we weren't well planned enough.

"I think off the back of that we've tried to put a couple of things in place, and we've been able to utilise them a couple of times in the last month.

"The Dogs had all the momentum at the end, they kicked a couple in a row, and we knew we needed to try and hold of momentum and we were able to do it just long enough."

After trailing by nine points at half time, the Hawks kept the Dogs goalless in the third term as they put two goals on the board themselves to take a one point lead into the final term.

"It was a game that ebbed and flowed," Mitchell said.

"The Bulldogs are so consistent with how they pressure the game, they don't give up, it's very difficult to get a run on against them because they are so consistent in their contest work.

"They jumped us, they kicked 3.2 before we even looked like it, but from that point on I thought we were able to mange momentum fairly well.

"The third quarter they had a little bit of a breeze, but we were able to control the ball a little more and keep them honest. But their defence held up pretty well, we weren't able to put them away at any stage besides having long periods of possession.

"We've got a bit of work to do on our efficiency going forward, but the consistency of our work rate held up in the end."

After an upset 32-point win against Collingwood last week, Mitchell said it was pleasing to see his side back it up and grind away to a different type of victory.

"We played Collingwood last week and it was a prettier win, it was a high scoring game, we really had some great highlights," Mitchell said.

"But this game we had to win in a messy, fighting manner, there was so much going on in the game and none of it was really pretty it was all just a big scrap and fight.

"We only kicked nine nine goals, all being individual goal kickers, so from a highlights point of view, it wasn't high scoring.

"The fact that those two games contrasted each other so heavily is one positive for the group to takeaway from today."

With just two games left of the season, the coach said he was aiming for some greater consistency from his side to finish the year.

"I think most of us are a bit disappointed that the season is going to come to an end for us," Mitchell said.

"Internally we've got confidence in the journey we are on, we know there has been some bumps in the road and we know there is going to be a lot more.

"(But) I feel like we are finally finding our way, we've got an enormous challenge in front of us in the long term as well as in seven days time when we face Melbourne.

"Earlier in the year we beat St Kilda, we bet Brisbane but then got blown away in the next to games. We've now beat Collingwood and the Bulldogs, but we come up against Melbourne next week and we haven't proven that we can play consistently at a high-level enough.

"We've done it for two games in a row, but can we do it for another two games of the season?"

Hear more from Mitchell following the Round 22 win.