HAWTHORN half-back Grant Birchall was frustrated with his side’s inability to maintain their first-half performance in Sunday’s 42-point loss to the Brisbane Lions at Aurora Stadium.

The 21-year-old Tasmanian, who along with Brad Sewell and Brendan Whitecross re-signed with the Hawks last week, was obviously disappointed with the result, but felt confident the club would bounce back during the second half of the season.

“It was pretty ordinary, particularly in the second half,” he said.

“We just had no momentum, we couldn’t get our hands on the footy to use our running game and when we started to use our running game in the second quarter we just over-used the footy, handballed probably a little bit too much and went down the skinny side of the oval way too much.

“I’m pretty confident everyone can bounce back. We’ve just got to get back on track and move on pretty quickly.”

Given the Hawks are entering the mid-season break with a 6-6 record, Birchall was under no illusions as to the importance of the week off in refreshing the players and focusing minds on the second half of the season.

“We’re back to the pack, I think. A lot of teams now are six and six,” he said.

“We’ve got to go into the break, freshen up, we’ve got to get our bodies right, get our minds right and get back.

“We’ve got West Coast over in Perth after the break so we can only concentrate on that and hopefully get a win and move forward.

“We get a few days off so guys can go home or whatever and try to take their minds off footy and both mentally and physically try to get a bit of a break, so from that point of view it’s crucial.”