West Coast are capable of challenging Hawthorn more than they did on Saturday; they are not a 46-point worse team. But neither were Sydney last year.

West Coast knew they had to make the most of their chances when they got them. Everyone told them so.

The importance of goal-kicking in separating great teams from very good ones was given more airplay in the build-up to this grand final than any other in recent memory. The Eagles know how to apply scoreboard pressure, too. They were the league's No.1 scoring team and had the league's best goal-kicker.

And yet by early in the second term, they had registered 1.6 to Hawthorn's 6.1. They had one less scoring shot at half-time, 11 to 12, yet trailed by 31 points.

"They made the most of their opportunities and we didn't make the most of ours when we had momentum early and that's pretty much why we lost the game," Eagle Elliot Yeo said after the game.

"They are a quality team, but there were no excuses on our end."

Captain Shannon Hurn is capable of kicking a set shot from 30metres out directly in front, like he could have in the second quarter. But he didn't. Just minutes later, the Hawks took the ball up the other end and kicked a fast-break goal that, in hindsight, made the whole thing very hard for his team. It is perhaps a harsh comparison (judgments are at their harshest on this day) but it was impossible not to draw a line between Hurn's shot and the lasting moment his opposite number, Luke Hodge, created with his boundary banana earlier.

Brownlow medallist Matt Priddis is capable of steadying on his left foot and slotting the chance he had on the run from the corridor late in the second quarter when it was essential for the Eagles to consolidate the ascendancy they had built in general play. But he didn't.

From midway through the second quarter to midway through the third, the Eagles had a lot of time to get themselves back into this game but didn't.

Jack Darling never spills easy chest marks like he did in the third quarter.

But he did. If not the shot itself, there were countless times where Eagles players blew the critical kick that would have set up another chance – like Luke Shuey's just before Darling's error.

And, of course, to make matters worse, at the other end, the Hawks were doing crazy things like Isaac Smith's Peter Daicos impression in the third quarter.

And so on it went, as the visitors made one bad decision after another in front of 98,000 people.

"It was pretty bad," a shattered Josh Kennedy said afterward.

"This is going to stick deep in us. It feels pretty shithouse. We will remember it for a long, long time."

West Coast knew their top-end talent had to play at their top end for them to win, because the likelihood was that the Hawks' best would bring their best.

Kennedy didn't even score, Nic Naitanui barely had an impact and Yeo had just five disposals – to name just a few.

"It wasn't the ideal game that I would have liked," Yeo said. "But a lot of blokes would be saying the same thing.

Kennedy, blanketed by James Frawley, could offer only more of the same in his self-appraisal.

"Being up forward and being one of the senior blokes you always want to make an impact," Kennedy said.

"But my game today was pretty disappointing. Their defence just killed us."

The Eagles know how to create the kind of pressure that can fluster even this Hawthorn team, maybe the most professional, veteran team ever.

They did it in the qualifying final just three weeks ago and were one the league's best for doing it throughout the regular season. Yet so was Sydney last year.

Just as certainly, West Coast knew they had to bring frenzied pressure, for the Hawks were always going to bring theirs.

Everyone told them that. But then again, they all told Sydney, too.

Like the Swans, the Eagles laid nowhere near enough tackles in the first quarter.

They knew they needed heat on the ball carrier to allow them play the "Weagles' Web" and not allow Hawthorn to use the width of the MCG and amass 130 uncontested marks and about 100 more uncontested possessions.

They knew they could be exposed by the tall line-up the Hawks had selected if they didn't.

"It was probably a bit more open than we would have expected," Yeo said of his team's lack of defensive pressure early, which helped the Hawks get over and through the web.

"We were a bit off in that opening 20 minutes and they were exceptional."

Kennedy agreed, adding: "I just think Hawthorn really stepped up. Their pressure was unbelievable today".

The Eagles knew all this and on any other day might have been able to play the way they wanted to.

But the point is they didn't. Like Sydney didn't last year.

The other team never seems to when they play Hawthorn, and maybe that it more the point.

The Hawks always do.

Did the Eagles, and Sydney last year, just get stage fright, or are the Hawks just that damn good?

Are Hawthorn the masters of punishing teams when they don't seize their moments, or, by seizing the moment themselves with such class, do they set a standard no one else can live up to?

Yeo thinks the latter: "they way were just way to good for us".

"That's why they've won three premierships," he said.

Priddis called the loss a "bitter pill to swallow" but also understood that the experience could be useful once the after taste had subsided.

"It's been a fast rise for us, so we'll learn a lot from this," he said.

"We are a very young group. We are going to get better and we're hungry."