SMALL forward Dayne Zorko says the Brisbane Lions have learned some harsh lessons from Sunday's heavy loss to Hawthorn, admitting it may have sapped the team's confidence.

Coming off the bye, the Lions led Hawthorn at quarter-time but were over-powered and lost by 65 points.

Zorko, one of his team's best with 24 disposals and three goals, said after a last-start win against West Coast, losing to the Hawks in such a fashion had jolted the Lions.

"We thought going down to Hawthorn [we had] a lot of momentum, we gave ourselves a massive chance," Zorko said at Monday's recovery session.

"It was disheartening to have seven goals kicked on us in the last quarter, especially [considering] the week before against West Coast we kicked eight, so our confidence probably did take a hit.

"We just fell away and we just couldn't match Hawthorn's leg speed in the end."

The Hawks dominated for large portions of the match, pumping the ball inside 50 a whopping 71 times to the Lions' 41.

Zorko said there were lessons to be learned ahead of Saturday's match against the Western Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium.

"The Hawks were a bit quicker, they executed a lot better than us and they've got a lot of left footers that hit targets every time," he said.

"We let their left footers get on their left side and really penetrate long into the forward line and they've got Buddy Franklin down there who can kick goals anywhere.

"Unfortunately we just couldn't keep the ball going forward and when we did, it came straight back out again.

"We'll just go back to what we did well against West Coast, and we executed everything right against them, and we'll move forward to the Bulldogs."

The Lions (15th with a 4-7 record) play two teams in the bottom six in the coming fortnight, with the Bulldogs followed by Melbourne at home.

Michael Whiting covers Brisbane Lions news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_mikewhiting

The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL