A week after its biggest choke Hawthorn strangled the life out of Carlton at Optus Oval, restricting the Blues to nine goals to win their AFL game by nine points.

Desperate to atone for the disastrous fade-out to Richmond, the Hawks slogged it out and ran hardest when it mattered to win 11.8 (74) to 9.9 (63).

Leading by three goals at quarter-time and 17 points in the third term, Hawthorn again looked to have tossed in a sizeable lead when Blue Ryan Houlihan cut the gap to five points before three-quarter time.

Carlton had the chance to hit the lead in the last term but Justin Murphy pushed his set shot from 30 metres wide before Hawks Adrian Cox (three goals) and Joel Smith goaled.

Hawthorn's win was a great turnaround after letting a 51-point lead slip to the Tigers and took the pressure off coach Peter Schwab.

"Any side that cops a bad loss is always going to come out snarling and playing in an aggressive manner," Schwab said.

"This will go a long way towards helping us because it just showed that if they play with the desperation and commitment like they (showed) today we're going to be OK, or at least be hard to beat, but the key's going to be how we go next week.

"We've got character, we've just got to get that consistency and effort."

After a free-flowing start the game developed into a slog as both defences lifted their intensity.

Although the Blues got plenty of the ball through captain Brett Ratten and veteran Andrew McKay, they could not convert.

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP