HAWTHORN captain Sam Mitchell says last night’s 57-point win over 15th-placed West Coast was as important as any this year, given the side’s patchy recent form.

Despite taking the best part of three quarters to quash a mini-Eagle uprising, before breaking the contest open with a seven-goal final term, the 25-year-old skipper said it was case of mission accomplished for the third-placed Hawks.

Hawthorn’s next appearance comes against the in-form Sydney Swans on July 13 at the MCG, in what shapes as the match of round 15.

Mitchell shrugged off suggestions the side was struggling to find its best form and said the win over West Coast was full of merit, given the mounting injury toll.

“We lost a couple of soldiers with Jordan Lewis going down early, and Luke Hodge wasn’t able to come back in the third (quarter), which caused a bit of havoc with our rotations,” he said.

Lewis left the field late in the first term with a thigh injury and did not return, while Hodge copped a kicked to the calf just before half time. The Hawks also lost former skipper Shane Crawford late in the game with a knee injury to severely weaken a midfield division already without key playmakers Brad Sewell and Chance Bateman.

“It was good to get a win and go into the break feeling reasonably good about ourselves and just revive and get our mental state right and the body a bit of a rest,” he said.

He paid tribute to Jarryd Roughead and Lance Franklin, who kicked 11 goals between them to be the match-winners, while praising the effort of defender Brent Guerra who gathered a team-high 29 disposals dashing off half-back.

“He’s such a good kick of the footy that whenever you can get the ball into his hands you want to do that because he’s just going to cut the opposition up,” Mitchell said.