SYDNEY Swans coach Paul Roos and midfielder Adam Goodes have both admitted they thought they had the game won against Hawthorn in the final term on Sunday before Barry Hall's triple 50m penalty incident.

Roos said he felt "confident" about the Swans' chances after they hit the front early in the fourth term following goals to Darren Jolly and Goodes.

However, a goal to Mark Williams up the other end followed by the controversial Jarryd Roughead major that stemmed from Hall's indiscretion then swung the momentum dramatically.

"We were never over-confident because they're the premiership team and they've got some really good players that are hungry at the moment," Roos said.

"They've got some good forwards as well. I didn't think we'd get overrun, but we certainly had the momentum and looked good early in the last quarter."

Goodes was more straight-forward when describing what he thought the Swans' chances were as the clock wound down.

"We had them in the last quarter. We had them running all over the place, we were getting it in our forward line, we looked really dangerous and we were creating scoring opportunities," he said.

"The game was definitely there to be won, and once we hit the lead I felt really positive about kicking on.

"I know other players did as well. We're definitely playing good enough football but there are a lot of areas where we can improve."

While shattered about the result, the dual Brownlow Medallist said it was a positive to win the contested ball battle 129 to 111, after losing the fight against the Western Bulldogs by 20 in Canberra last weekend.

"That's a good start for us. They're a team that are pretty hard in the midfield and it didn't get us the result on the scoreboard but that's a good start," he said.

"It means a lot of blokes are joining in and putting their bodies on the line and making tackles, and it's a big tick for us today."