Hawthorn players were left to share a series of “hard truths” with each other after Friday night’s disappointing loss to Collingwood.

Under more pressure than any other team during the week after a 33-point loss to Brisbane, Hawthorn just couldn’t go with the red-hot Magpies in front of 83,706 fans.

Collingwood slammed through six straight goals from late in the second quarter to midway through the third term, setting up the 16.11 (107) to 8.8 (56) win.

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today

Immediately after the match, the players were told to bring their mouth guards to training, while coach Sam Mitchell conceded they were “miles off it”.

“I asked them actually, just had a bit of discussion to let it all out and ask them what’s going on. Where are we at and what do you think,” he said.

“I think it was pretty clear to everyone here and those watching at home that we’re, at this point, miles off it.

“That was a pretty big reality check on what the best look like at this point of the season.”

Channel 7 reporter Xander McGuire said Mitchell left the players in the room at times to chat amongst themselves.

“Interesting scenes in the Hawks rooms right now, so Sam Mitchell came in probably 5-10 minutes after the players to let them stew a bit,” he explained.

“Mitchell and a number of key staff then left the meeting. I’m not sure if the players have been left to have a heart-to-heart on their own.”

Former Magpie Jack Ginnivan, who was among the Hawks’ best, shared some insight into what was said.

“It went for a while, just around standards that we are holding each other to, it is obviously not good enough in the last three rounds so getting back to basics and bring the mouthguards to training on Tuesday and put the head over the footy and have a crack, so basic stuff,” Ginnivan told Channel 7.

“We have been losing contested possessions and tackles and want to get back to our DNA and that is raise the pressure and putting teams under pressure so we can score from there.

“We are just not putting on enough pressure to turn the ball over in our front half and it is making us a bit boring and dry in our front half. We want to put the pressure on.”

Ginnivan added that the playing group often respond well to player-driven discussions.

“At the start, it was just players telling some hard truths and we like doing that as a club, and we always respond well to that, so hopefully we do,” he said.

“We only have six days until the Dogs and they are flying, so we are going to get stuck into them. Keep moving forward.”

Mitchell highlighted Ginnivan’s performance as the only positive from the match.

“We’ve got some work to do where we can get our players in positions to tackle more often, because you’re not going to beat a side like that if you can only lay 38 (tackles),” Mitchell said.

Hawthorn now head into next Thursday’s blockbuster against the Western Bulldogs off the back of three straight losses.

After starting the season on fire, the Hawks now have a 7-5 win-loss record and suddenly look shaky in the top eight.

They have only beaten one top-eight side so far this year and that was the Giants.