Hawthorn Coach Alastair Clarkson said his side was not competitive enough through the midfield as Fremantle triumphed by 62 points at UTAS Stadium on Saturday. 

With the likes of Andrew Brayshaw, Nat Fyfe, David Mundy and Caleb Serong combining for 123 disposals and three goals, the Dockers on-ball brigade ultimately proved too strong for the Hawks.

"We knew before this game that we were going to have compete really strongly in the middle of the ground," Clarkson said.

"Their middle of the oval is the strongest part of their side in my view - Darcy is a very strong ruckman, alongside Fyfe and Mundy who give them some experience in there and then they have a group of younger guys in Brayshaw, Cerra and Serong.

"We needed to compete well in there and we didn't so that meant the game was played on their terms far too much."

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Despite only losing the clearance count by two, Clarkson explained that it was more so the difference in the quality of those clearances that rung true. 

"If you look at clearance results, it doesn't look like we've been smashed in that part of the ground.

"But it was just the difference between the two sides in terms of when they did move the ball from stoppage, and in general play, they were just far superior to us."

Watch Clarkson's full press conference below.