HAWTHORN coach Alastair Clarkson says the Hawks have too much talent to remain near the bottom of the ladder despite a sixth loss in a row, this time against the Eagles at Subiaco Oval.

Led by a resurgent Jarryd Roughead, who finished with six goals, Hawthorn pushed West Coast throughout the game but fell short by just eight points.

The Hawks were monstered by the Eagles’ ruck combination of Dean Cox and Nic Naitanui and could not contain Josh Kennedy, who also kicked six goals for the home side.

Clarkson was again left to lament the Hawks’ lack of ruck depth but remained upbeat about the club’s prospects of turning its season around.

“There’s 15 games to go and anything can happen in footy so we just keep battling away”, Clarkson said.

“We felt like we took a step in the right direction in terms of our endeavour and application and if that’s right then my view is that we’ve got too much talent in our side to stay down around the bottom for too long.

“We’ll get some players back over the course of the next couple of weeks and that will help us with a bit more experience and polish (so) there’s still plenty to look forward to.

“Despite the doom and gloom in terms of the win-loss, we’ve got genuine belief as a footy club that we’re heading in the right direction and we’ve got genuine belief in the playing group that we can turn this around and get ourselves back into the season.”

Clarkson nominated skipper Sam Mitchell, key forward Lance Franklin, Shaun Burgoyne and Rhan Hooper as possible inclusions next week against Richmond.

Roughead’s performance following a week of intense scrutiny received special praise.

“He’s a very, very proud boy and (he was) maybe a little bit unfairly criticised throughout the course of the week,” Clarkson said.

“In retrospect I don’t reckon he was fit to play last week but because he’s got such a big heart he wanted to get out there and try to help the side against Essendon and it blew up in his face and blew up in ours.

“Such is the character of the bloke he responded in the right manner today.”