Luke Hodge is one of a batch of Hawks who can hold their head high after Saturday night's 25-point loss at the Gabba. But the midfielder admits he and his young teammates must lift their games.

Hodge was at a loss to explain the high number of unforced errors that afflicted Hawthorn throughout the match and said his side's late finishing burst was little consolation. With less than 10 minutes to play in the fourth quarter, the Hawks had whittled away the Lions' advantage to little more than two goals and looked a slim chance to stage a miraculous recovery.

"It's pretty hard to take anything positive out of [the comeback], considering how ugly the game was," Hodge said.

"But we could see that when we apply ourselves, we can kick some goals. Unfortunately they came back and kicked two more going back the other way. It was a frustrating night."

Hodge said Hawthorn's entire playing group would take responsibility for a performance that did not meet expectations. Danny Jacobs was productive as a floating man in defence with 33 possessions and 20 marks (19 of them uncontested), while Clinton Young and Jordan Lewis had 30 and 28 disposals respectively.

"You could go through the whole side and, apart from a couple, not too many blokes did their job," Hodge explained.

"It was just horrific. Occasionally you come off thinking it wasn't too bad but I'd have hated to have been watching it tonight. The skill errors from both sides were horrendous. It was a little bit sticky but I'm not too sure what it was. There were a few turnovers there that you couldn't have explained what happened."