Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson wasn't picky with how it came, but says Sunday's two-point win over Sydney gave the Hawks a chance to make something of their AFL season.

The Hawks scrapped their way to a third successive win although their inability to put the Swans away nearly came back to bite them at the MCG.

After missing shots all day, the Hawks were on level terms in the last two minutes when Sydney's Rhyce Shaw kicked a behind on the run.

But youngsters Brendan Whitecross and Carl Peterson averted further crisis at Hawthorn by booting behinds in the Hawks' 10.19 (79) to 11.11 (77) win, which put them a game outside the top eight after they sat in 14th spot a fortnight ago.

"We can't be too fussy with the way we're getting wins at the moment," Clarkson said.

"We just want to take them, put them in the bank and move on.

"We've got four now so we've given ourselves a chance to get back into the season with three wins on the trot.

"But it was hardly convincing, albeit at different stages throughout the course of the day, had we been able to maintain some reasonable scoreboard pressure on the Sydney side by converting accurately, it would have perhaps changed the momentum of the game and given us a five or six-goal victory."

Hawthorn set the tone with four behinds before their first goal, but on four occasions held handy leads over the under-manned Swans.

But Sydney drew on their youngsters for inspiration, as Daniel Hannebery capped a best-afield display with a brilliant goal after four bounces, which signalled the start of the charge.

When Adam Goodes finally converted - the Brownlow medallist kicked five behinds in a dirty day - the Swans had kicked five goals for the last quarter.

Shaw narrowly missed making it a sixth from about 40 metres, and Hawthorn's Cyril Rioli found Whitecross, whose miss put the Hawks up.

The innaccuracy hit its nadir either side of halftime, when both sides added 10 behinds without a goal.

Clarkson said he knew his side was fading towards the close with Campbell Brown (knee) and Xavier Ellis (nose) out, but hailed leaders Sam Mitchell and Luke Hodge for their work in the dying stages and the team for grinding out a win.

Peterson also provided a presence in the forward line, and put Hawthorn eight points up earlier in the quarter with a high mark at the top of the goalsquare.

"We were pretty pleased he marked it where he did, it seemed like we needed to be five metres out to get a goal," he said.

Sydney's defeat was their fourth in succession and left them with a 5-5 win-loss record, but coach Paul Roos found encouragement in this performance.

"The positive thing for us is the improvement of the young guys," he said.

"It wasn't that long ago (2008) they (Hawthorn) were premiers and they've got most of their players back and they're playing pretty good footy.

"So for Hannebery to get 25 (disposals) and three goals and be a clear best on ground, for Nick Smith to keep Hodgey under control and for Gary Rohan to do a little bit down back, there's some positives to come out of it on a really big stage."

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