Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell believes his side can go “a long way” this year after handing former premiership favourites Collingwood their biggest loss of the season at the MCG on Thursday night.

Hawthorn was utterly dominant against the Magpies on Thursday night in the 64-point result which gave the Hawks some much-needed breathing room inside the top eight with GWS and the Western Bulldogs breathing down their necks.

Hawthorn will have to beat Melbourne and the Lions in Brisbane to make a certainty of a finals berth.

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“The group feels like we’re capable. Like, last week, we lost to Adelaide in Adelaide after being in front at three-quarter time. We lost a couple of weeks before that to Freo in Perth when a couple of goals up three-quarter time again,” the Hawthorn coach said.

“It’s not like we don’t feel like we’re capable, it’s just can we do it for long enough? And the players are very understanding that dealing with adversity within a game is going to be a big part of what this season holds for us and if we can maintain our best footy, or close to it, for longer periods of time then we think we can go a long way.

“If we have lapses, then sides put you away and we don’t have too many chances left, so our focus is to play full four-quarter games for the majority of every game for the rest of the season now.”

However, Mitchell was all too aware of the reality that his team has “run out of chances” to slip up in its bid to make the finals.

“We’re playing for our season right now, aren’t we? As great as the game was and as exciting as that was, we haven’t qualified for finals,” Mitchell said.

“We need to continue to win … we understand the position. We’ve made it a little hard for ourselves.

“For a lot of the year we’ve been a bit higher on the ladder than where we are right now and we’ve run out chances pretty much so we know we’re going to have to play our best footy from hereon in and tonight was much closer to that.”

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But while finals footy isn’t certain for Hawthorn just yet, Mitchell was in no doubt about one thing – veteran forward Jack Gunston being an All-Australian this year.

The 33-year-old has enjoyed a spectacular renaissance in 2025, with 53 goals to his name – his best return in 10 years, and needs just another six majors for a career-best tally.

And Mitchell admitted, before the season started, he didn’t envisage Gunston playing the way he is right now.

“He’d have to be locked in, wouldn’t he? And I think if you look at the role he plays, it’s obviously vital to us,” Mitchell said.

“But his season has just been super consistent. He’s hardly played a bad game and he’s had a positive influence on just about every game for the whole season.

“It’s great for him to get a blazer this year.”

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Gunston is now part of a very tall forward line which also features Mabior Chol, Calsher Dear, Mitch Lewis and even Lloyd Meek when the ruckman drifts forward. Mitchell described the set-up as a “work in progress”.

“The way our forwards operated was really in sync today, and they’re probably more prone this week to flying together, which I thought was better,” Mitchell said.

“Last week they probably were trying to be a bit too respectful of each other.”