After four barnstorming weeks, Sydney co-captain Adam Goodes was left lamenting three bad quarters as their AFL season came to an end.

Goodes recovered from a sore knee to kick three goals in his 300th match, but Hawthorn were too good and won their semi-final by 36 points on Friday night at the MCG.

Sydney gave the Hawks a massive scare in the third term, reducing the margin to three goals.

But the rally frustrated Goodes as much as it showed what Sydney can do.

"We only played one quarter tonight and that was the third, we showed what we can do against a quality side," he said.

"That's the frustrating part, we didn't give ourselves (the) opportunity to play the type of footy we know we can play and we have played in the last four weeks - especially on a big stage down here at the MCG."

The Swans fell 40 points behind in the first half as the Hawks predictably hit back hard after their poor qualifying-final effort against Geelong.

Most damning for Sydney, a side renowned for their hardness, was that Hawthorn players went in harder than them early in the game.

"Their contested ball was questioned last week against Geelong, we knew they were going to come hard, their senior players really led the way in that first half," Goodes said.

"For us, it was our senior players who really didn't carry our weight and really help the young boys along.

"As pleasing as it was in the third quarter, we just gave them too much of a head start."

Still, Goodes was able to reflect on their previous four games, when they rallied from the terrible round-21 loss to Richmond.

They beat St Kilda twice and also ended Geelong's long Skilled Stadium winning streak.

"We know our trademark, our brand of footy, stands up in big games," Goodes said.

"The challenge is to bring it for four quarters, week-in, week-out."

As Goodes sat slumped against the changeroom wall post-match, his overwhelming feeling was that the Swans had blown a chance.

"Any time you're knocked out - and I've been doing this for a long time now - it hurts exactly the same.

"It's a semi-final, you win this game you're into a prelim and anything can happen.

"So that's the most disappointing thing, that we didn't give ourselves an opportunity to win.

"We really have to make sure next season that every game we play, we play four quarters of trademark footy and that's got to be our commitment to each other."

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