HAWTHORN'S win over the Swans on Sunday has given the players the confidence that they can have an impact in the finals this year, according to running defender Thomas Murphy.

The 22-year-old from Murrumbeena notched his 10th match of the season and 22nd overall in Sunday's stirring win over the Sydney Swans.

He celebrated with a career-high five tackles and he continued to grow into an important part of the Hawthorn running brigade.

But Murphy said the ability of the Hawthorn side to match the Swans’ hardness around the contests had been the best part of the victory.

"Finals footy is not open, free-flowing, circle-work type footy it is hard, contested footy with lots of stoppages and throwing your body on the ball," Murphy said.

"So it was good that we were able to do that against the Swans.

"Obviously they had the wood over us in the past few games so it was an important win for us.

"It is another notch on the belt and we'll now try to be serious finals contenders.

"The Swans play a hard one-on-one style of footy so we knew we were going to have to come up against that and that was one area we did well in."

Murphy said coach Alastair Clarkson congratulated the side after the game.

"He said Sydney are always going to make you play that way, that's why they had the wood on us the last couple of times we have played them so we worked hard on that," Murphy said.

"Sydney has had more mature bodies but a few of us in our second and third years have put on some kilos which has gone a long way to helping us be a lot tougher around the stoppages which really helps against Sydney."

As for his own form, Murphy said he was quietly pleased with how his own season had progressed.

"It has been great to play more games this year than last year," he said.

"I have played 10 so far, I broke my hand after round four and missed four or five matches so that was disappointing.

"But to get back into a winning team has been really important for my development and it has been really good that the team has been able to kick along this year."

But Murphy warned that the challenges wouldn't get any easier with a clash with top eight side St Kilda this week followed by Geelong the following Friday night.

"St Kilda are a genuine finals team and play one-on-one as well," Murphy said.

"You'd be surprised the difference in gameplans isn't that much, it is more about if your team comes to play on the night and how well your team is playing together goes a long way to deciding who wins.

"We just need to have the same sort of intensity as we had on Sunday."

Post-match on Sunday Murphy sought out Swan Jarred Moore, a former junior teammate.

"I played Under 18s with Jarred and he has been a bit similar to me, just getting a few games here and there in his first couple of seasons. But he has got a whole stack of games this year.