Sam Mitchell admitted his Hawks "shot (themselves) in the foot" after giving up a 28-point lead to Greater Western Sydney on Sunday afternoon.

Mitchell was full of praise for the way the Giants went about their footy, acknowledging that the home side's scoring power was simply too much in the end.

"We just couldn't stop their scoring late in the game," Mitchell said.

"They're a really well-drilled, well-coached, really organised side. We know that if they can get (a) run and carry, handball game going, you know, they're number one for handball metres gained by a big margin.

"We were able to restrict that for the majority of the game, but in the last quarter they doubled down on it, which we suspected they would, and it was just a bit too much for us."

Mitchell singled out Toby Greene, Jesse Hogan, and Brent Daniels as key performers in the Giants' come-from-behind victory.

"They had a couple of pretty special bits of play and pretty special players doing a couple of things that obviously got them there," Mitchell said.

"They're a dangerous side… if there were lessons to learn from that other than you have to be good all the time against the best sides, some of it was around the key players for them having key moments."

The Hawks must now prepare to face a smarting Carlton side in a must-win game should they remain a chance for September action.