Midfielder Luke Parker believes his younger and inexperienced teammates will only benefit from playing in games with the same intensity and tension seen in Thursday night's narrow loss to Hawthorn.

For the third time this season Sydney was overrun in the dying minutes, on this occasion to reigning premier Hawthorn in the top-of-the-table clash at the SCG.

Leading by seven points with about five minutes left on the clock, Sydney made some costly mistakes which led to clutch goals from Shaun Burgoyne and then Cyril Rioli to gift Hawthorn a last gasp win.

The heartbreaking defeat follows on from the similar losses to Richmond and Western Bulldogs, with Sydney losing all three by a combined nine points.

The Swans remain second on the ladder with an 11-5 win-loss record, but could fall to as low as seventh by the end of the round given the congestion within the top eight.

While "flattening", Parker believes there are positives to take away from the loss including the competitiveness shown in the second half when Hawthorn took control prior to the major break and the invaluable experience gained by the likes of youngsters Aliir Aliir, Tom Papley and Callum Mills.

"It's great for our young guys to play in games like this, you don't get any more heated contests than the last two weeks," Parker said post-match.

"Moving into finals it's good to get them exposed to that kind of football, you don't want to ease off and then let it hit you. It's flattening, but we'll take some sort of consolation out of it that we were right in it.

"We were really good in the first term, but we dropped off on our pressure and let their kicking game going. We know how dangerous they are when they get that going. I think we always knew they'd have their turn.

"It was great to see that we bounced back, even in the fourth to get ourselves in front blokes like (Tom) Papley and Bud (Lance Franklin) stood up and built that enthusiasm and energy.

"It's just unfortunate that at the end of the day we weren't on top."

Parker led the charge for the home side, collecting 35 disposals and an incredible 14 clearances, while Josh Kennedy (33) and Tom Mitchell (34) also had standout performances.

Sydney will look to rebound with a Saturday afternoon clash against Carlton at the SCG.