MIDFIELDER Jordan Lewis said there was no panic from Hawthorn's players as they watched their 32-point half-time lead disappear in front of their eyes against Essendon last Friday night.

The Bombers booted six unanswered goals in the third term to hit the front, but the Hawks rallied – despite being without skipper Luke Hodge for most of the second half and late withdrawal Sam Mitchell (calf) – to secure a thrilling four-point victory.

"We were missing a few leaders and I think the thing that comes out of the game is there was maybe two minutes to go and we were 10 points down and not at one stage did I notice any panic on the ground," Lewis said on Monday.

"We still knew we had a fair bit of time to claw that lead back and we left it until 55 seconds to go to actually get in front, but I think it shows the maturity of the group.

"It was a pretty young side compared to last year's side that was out there and we really dealt with the pressure well."

The Hawks will now turn their attention to Fremantle ahead of Friday night's Grand Final re-match at the MCG.

One of the toughest tasks ahead of the Hawks will be finding a way to nullify the influence of dominant Docker big man, Aaron Sandilands who has had an outstanding start to the season.

The Fremantle big man has had more hit outs than any other ruckman in the league in the opening two rounds

Sandilands has given his midfielders first use of the football, with David Mundy, Michael Barlow, Nathan Fyfe and Stephen Hill among the Dockers to impress in the opening two rounds.

Lewis said stopping the Fremantle midfield will be a tough task on Friday night.

"Every side would go into a game against Sandilands expecting not to win their fair share of hit outs," he said.

"You can try every trick in the book but at the end of the day we really need to nullify their midfielders and the connectiong between Mundy and Fyfe and these sorts of guys with Sandilands."

Hawthorn will sweat on the fitness of Hodge (groin), Mitchell, midfielder Brad Sewell (hamstring), Ben Stratton (calf/hamstring), Matt Spangher (cork) and Jed Anderson (shoulder) this week ahead of Friday night's Grand Final rematch against Fremantle.