LAST night's surprise 30-point loss to St Kilda was a "reality check" for Hawthorn going into next week's clash with top-of-the-table Geelong, according to Hawks' coach Alastair Clarkson.

The Saints, in what was clearly their best win under coach Ross Lyon, staged a 64-point turnaround to run away with the match, with Nick Riewoldt booting six goals in a best-on-ground performance.

For Clarkson, his side's fadeout after leading by 34 points at the 28-minute mark of the second quarter exposed that his young side had not had a run-on of goals like the Saints produced last night at Telstra Dome.

St Kilda kicked 12 goals to three in the second half in a spectacular reversal of form.

"There is a lot of talk and hype out in the wider football community about the heightened expectations of Hawthorn, but this was a bit of a reality check for our club today," Clarkson said.

"We have still got a lot of work to do. I think it is more of a reality check in terms of how well we've performed as a club. We've won 13 games, and I certainly didn't anticipate that by round 16. It doesn't mean you go into this game thinking we can afford to drop one.

"Our form's been pretty good, but we know the age of our group, the experience they've got, we're miles behind Geelong and the Western Bulldogs on that front.

"You get situations like tonight's game and when a team gets a significant run-on like they did, (it shows) how difficult it is for young players sometimes to cope with that.

"That's the first significant run-on a side's had on us for a long period of time, so you learn from that and you move on."

Lyon wasn't making too much of the win, suggesting that with the finals still up for grabs, every game was a crunch game.

"North Melbourne are really fighting, Richmond are coming, there's no respite," he said.

"All it means is we stay in the hunt to force our way into the eight if we keep winning."

The wins to Richmond, North Melbourne and St Kilda have added intensity to the finals race, with just six points separating Collingwood, in fifth spot, and the 10th-placed Tigers, ahead of today's matches.