Anyone who saw nothing of Hawthorn's 13-point AFL win over Essendon on Sunday at the MCG would assume from the statistics that it was a tight contest.

In truth, the Hawks had the match sealed from early in the third term as they broke a 10-game losing streak against the Bombers to win 17.15 (117) to 16.8 (104).

It seemed every time Essendon mounted a serious challenge, Peter Everitt would win the next centre bounce and tap the ball to Luke Hodge, who would burst out of the centre and drill a long pass down the throat of a Hawks forward for a steadying goal.

The Hawks won every quarter and now have 20 premiership points, the maximum for them to gain a priority draft pick, with two rounds left.

"Despite getting the ball inside 50 probably more than Essendon we just couldn't get away to a big enough lead that we'd break their spirit," said Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson.

He singled out the efforts of several younger players - defender Jarryd Roughead on Scott Lucas, tagger Brad Sewell on James Hird, onballer Jordan Lewis against Jason Johnson and Simon Taylor at full-forward - all of whom contributed to the Hawks win.

"Just the progress of those kids and to beat the Bombers, who have been a bit of a bogey side for us for such a long period of time, was really good for our group today," Clarkson said.

The Hawks will pay a price for the win, with Campbell Brown facing suspension after two umpires reported him for striking Matthew Lloyd.

That happened during a scuffle on the half-time siren that will also keep the match review panel busy on Monday.

Lloyd could be in trouble for an incident involving Brown earlier in the second term.

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