Sydney Swans coach John Longmire said his team was "obliterated in the contests" but he refused to blame complacency for a slow start in a shock 38-point loss to Hawthorn at the SCG on Friday night.

The Swans entered the game with an 8-4 record and would have moved into the top four if they beat the Hawks, who were 17th on the ladder and on a five-game losing streak.

But the Swans looked sluggish from the outset, conceding the first two goals in the opening five minutes and losing the contested ball count 47-35 in the first term.

The Hawks controlled more of the contests for the rest of the match, winning the count in every quarter and finishing with 165 contested possessions to 139.

"They outhunted us, they were harder than us from the first bounce, out-pressured us and we didn't push back like we'd normally do," Longmire said.

"To their credit they were really good, they were up for the fight in all parts of the game.

"We just lost too many contests, we were obliterated in the contests."

“They were better than us in that area and we didn’t take our chances to take the momentum back early enough in the game.

"We needed to take control a bit earlier than what we did and when we did it after half time, we stopped running so that compounded the challenges we had.”