Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson was convinced the Hawks were 'done for' at the MCG on Saturday as Carlton forward Brendan Fevola lined-up from 30 metres on a slight angle at the 32 minute mark of the final quarter.

After all, the mercurial 'Fev' already had eight goals on the board and this was as simple a shot as he'd attempted all day.

The big difference was that Carlton trailed by five points at the time and there were just seconds left on the clock.

This was for the win in a scenario lifted from the pages of the Boys' Own Annual and co-opted in every Aussie boy's dream.

Fevola's despair as his shot grazed the inside of the goalpost was mirrored by the pumping of fists in the Hawthorn box as Clarkson knew he'd dodged a bullet.

"I thought we were shot," a drained Clarkson told his post-match media conference.

"He pegs them from 55 (metres) out - he kicked two 50-metre goals in the last quarter and you expect that he's going to nail one from 20, but that's the luck of the draw."

"We're just pleased that we did enough earlier in the game to get ourselves in front."

"We've been searching for a bit of luck over the first part of the season and we finally got it today."

Clarkson blamed fatigue for his players' failure to get their hands on the ball over the closing 10 minutes when the Blues narrowed the gap from 25 points to four.

But he was thankful they'd managed to win critical clearances earlier in the term that provided the service for Lance Franklin to score twice and break the spell that Paul Bower had over him, and for Jarryd Roughead to land his seventh and eighth goals for the match - a personal best.

"He's never kicked eight goals before so if you measure (his performance) just on the goalkicking tally then he'd be pleased to have kicked eight," Clarkson said of 'Roughy'.

"But I think he's probably played other games where he's kicked four or five where his contribution ... has probably been just as good as it was today."

Clarkson said he was relieved the club had managed to square the ledger at three wins from six rounds including two-in-a-row for the first time this season.

The priority now, he said is to build on the momentum starting with next Friday night's clash, coming off a short week, against Essendon at Etihad Stadium.