HAWTHORN skipper Sam Mitchell has lamented the brief lapse in concentration that cost his side four precious premiership points against Geelong on Saturday.

The Hawks looked to be cruising to victory almost five goals up early in the final term, but could not stop the Cats finishing over the top of them to snatch a one-point win.

"It is pretty disappointing, but when you give a very good side like Geelong 10 minutes when you're not quite on your game they're going to hurt you," Mitchell said.

"We probably had eight to 10 minutes where we dropped our bundle a little bit and didn't take as many risks and they really got on top of us. You've got to be on for 120 minutes when you play a side as good as Geelong.

"We're pretty happy with the way we're playing, we've improved a fair bit over the last month or so, but the proof is in the pudding. We didn't get the points and we really needed them.

"We should never have lost that game. We were up by 28 points and we shouldn't lose a game from there, so it's something we'll address during the week."

Having worked hard to establish such a commanding lead, Mitchell was asked if his side would have been better served by shutting up shop and taking an ultra-defensive approach to the rest of the game.

"I think we could have gone more attacking if anything," he replied.

"We let the game get played in their forward 50 which makes it hard for us to score.

"Obviously there's a lot of little things that could have happened throughout the day that could have found you a point here or there, but we were pretty happy with the way we were playing, we just didn't get the result."

The Hawks travel west to take on the Power at AAMI Stadium next Sunday which Mitchell agreed would be a pivotal match to his side's chances of playing finals.

"We've got Port Adelaide next week and if we don't win that then we're probably no chance … so next week's going to be a pretty big game for us," he said.

"It will be a challenge for us, but if we play the way we played today we give ourselves a big chance."