Four-time premiership coach Alastair Clarkson was at a loss to explain Hawthorn's second-half fadeouts as its two-game winning streak came to a crashing halt at the MCG on Saturday night.
Collingwood rallied from a 43-point deficit inside the first 10 minutes of the second quarter to defeat the Hawks by three goals thanks mostly to a nine-goal-to-one dominance after half time.
Luke Breust broke the three-quarter-time deadlock with his third major in what was Hawthorn's only kick for maximum points in the second half.
Clarkson's men have won just two of nine third quarters for the season – with an eye-opening losing differential of 175 points – and only three final terms have gone their way.
The Magpies turned the screws on them again in the premiership quarter, scoring five goals from 10 scoring shots compared to Hawthorn's solitary behind.
"If anyone knew the answer to (our second-half woes), they'd be sitting where I am," Clarkson said.
"It's not easy sometimes in this caper … it was moving ever-so-slightly away from what we were doing well in the first half and that fuelled a lot of their play.
"In the end, that gave them ball control, because if you give them the ball in open space in the back end (you are in trouble).
"We'll keep working on it and we're pleased with what we did in the first half and there were some really positive signs, but (we're) obviously disappointed with the way we finished off the game."
Clarkson said his team's faltering ball use and decision-making were bigger factors in the 61-point turnaround than the injury and illness carnage that robbed him of five players from last week.
Cyril Rioli and Ben Stratton (knees), ex-Demons James Frawley (turf toe) and Jack Fitzpatrick (concussion) and late withdrawal Tim O'Brien (hip) were all unavailable from the win over the Brisbane Lions.
Kaiden Brand was set to return to the side, but woke up ill on Saturday morning, opening the door for New Zealand-born Kurt Heatherley to play his second AFL match.
Energetic forward James Sicily was the other late inclusion and kicked three goals in the opening half.
Read: Sicily kicks three on return
"No-one would have been talking about the six changes at half time," Clarkson said.
"The way we set ourselves up – and every club is probably the same – (we are a) role-driven side and you've got to execute what you need to do in terms of your role within the side.
"I thought we did that particularly well. We just moved away from it ever so slightly in the third quarter … and it's a momentum game sometimes and we were unable to arrest the momentum.
"Maybe if you've got some more experienced players in, you could say that could be arrested, but I think it was more to do with our ball use than anything else."
Clarkson tipped O'Brien, who is enjoying a breakout senior campaign, to return for Friday night's clash with in-form Sydney.
Paul Puopolo and Jack Gunston both left the ground during the match with knee injuries, but Clarkson did not expect either problem to keep them out next week.
