An "enormously disappointed" Sam Mitchell didn't hide his frustrations after Saturday night's 53-point loss to Gold Coast, labelling his side's performance as "completely unacceptable".
The Hawks conceded the first three goals of the game - including one in the opening minute - to immediately place their backs up against the wall, with the Suns piling on ten second-half goals to steer themselves to victory.
In humid conditions, the Hawks struggled to cleanly move the ball despite their week-long preparation to match the environment on the Gold Coast, with the Suns' pressure at the contest and ability to find space among the many factors that separated the two sides.
Following an improved outing last week against Collingwood that saw the Hawks narrowly fall short of their first win, Mitchell aired his disappointment in Saturday's result post-game. The Hawthorn coach said his side failed to win "a single aspect of that game".
"I'm enormously disappointed. We should be well past games like that," Mitchell said.
"We lost every aspect of that game. We lost the midfield battle, we couldn't win a contest in front of the ball, we couldn't stop them scoring at the other end. There was not a single aspect of that game that went in our favour.
"I think we're probably the easiest team to put pressure on, because we invite it ourselves, and they were really good in that area. We didn't handle the conditions.
"Last week was a step in the right direction, but we didn't win. So it's not really the direction we're after."
Mitchell went on to describe his side's performance as "a completely unacceptable way to play", with the Hawthorn champion noting that a potential finals contending club took advantage of his team's poor ball movement and decision-making.
The Hawks lost the disposal count 270-366 and still couldn't win the tackle count (44-61), with the young side's struggles in taking their chances with the ball in hand leaving their coach to admit a fully fit side wouldn't have claimed four points with how they approached the contest.
"Ball handling and our handball skills... I think we had 35 ineffective handbells out of 100. Their pressure was good but we have to be better than that," Mitchell added
"We can't play AFL football against aspiring finals teams and cough up the ball or lose the contest the way we did. You're not going to be able to compete against anyone the way we played tonight.
"That's a completely unacceptable way to play. We should be past games like that. That's as bad as we've played in a long time.
"I'd love to tell you injuries made a huge difference tonight, but I don't think it would have mattered if we had every single player available. We needed significant change in the game.
"When you don't execute consistently, you get performances like that. It's not good enough."
Hawthorn now sit at 0-5 heading into next week's game against North Melbourne - who are also chasing their first win of 2024 - at Marvel Stadium on Sunday, April 21.
