Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell mixed a sense of pride with a ruthless desire to take the next step at his post match press conference.
Defeated by 30 points in the second preliminary final against Geelong, Hawthorn was the better side in the first quarter, but then was bettered in most facets thereafter, yet managed to stay with Geelong until the last five minutes.
Hawthorn's run to the preliminary final is the best finish for an eighth-placed side since North Melbourne in 2015.
"There's plenty to take from the season,” Mitchell said.
“We're making progress, our best stands up.
“We've got to the point now where our best is good enough.
“But we needed to produce pretty close to the very top end of what we are capable of tonight to beat a really quality side.
"I don't know the numbers, but if we had played a bit closer to our best then we're capable of beating Geelong.
“That's the position you want to be in as a club.
"We're going to have to make some improvements, we're going to have to continue to grow as a group for handling big moments but also just the execution of skill under enormous pressure.
"For the most part we handled it pretty well, but just not often enough tonight."
Hawthorn's preliminary final finish follows a semi final loss last year and comes ahead of an off-season where they are expected to get busy to improve their list.
"I'm enormously proud of the whole journey when we look at it, and some of that has been aggressive development and some of it has been aggressive free agency etc.” Mitchell said.
“But this isn't the aim.
"The aim isn't to sit here in preliminary final week as a loser and say we've achieved. I've got a level of pride, but I also have a level of desperation to go a couple of steps further than this."
