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CARLTON has slipped to a gut-wrenching four-point loss at the hands of Hawthorn in front of 69,104 fans at the MCG on Saturday afternoon.

Brendan Fevola, who booted eight goals, had the chance to put the Blues in front from about 20m out on an angle inside the last minute of a thrilling encounter, but his set shot shaved the inside of the post to set up the 16.10 (106) to 15.12 (102) final score.

Carlton looked done when it was 25 points down 19 minutes into the final term, but came storming home with the last three goals to set up Fevola's agonising last-gasp poster. 

Chris Judd was outstanding again with 33 touches with excellent support from Nick Stevens (26) and Marc Murphy (31), while Andrew Carrazzo played an excellent defensive role on Hawk playmaker Luke Hodge.

Jarryd Roughead was on fire up forward for the reigning premiers and also kicked an eight-goal bag with Sam Mitchell gathering 35 possessions.

Roughead got his day off to the right start with the first goal of the match, but the Blues had the better of the early going and reeled off three quick-fire goals – including a beauty to Fevola – to jump out to a 13-point lead midway through the quarter.

While Paul Bower was doing a good job on Lance Franklin with help from Jarrad Waite, Brett Thornton had his hands full with Roughead, who took his tally to four with a late three-goal burst that saw the Hawks up by 10 points at the first break.

Judd set up Stevens for the opening goal of a second in which Carlton held sway around the stoppages with 14 clearances to four. But despite that ascendancy the reigning premiers were able to keep their noses in front throughout with opportunist goals at important times.

Fev started to get on top of Robert Campbell and added another two with Eddie Betts' first major slicing the deficit to just two points, but Roughead took advantage of a wayward kick-in from Waite to slam through his sixth and make it a nine-point game at half time.   

The Hawks threatened to take the game away from the Blues after the restart, but numerous scoring opportunities yielded just 1.4 before Fevola steadied the ship with his fourth. Betts gathered superbly to snap his second almost immediately following that and Carlton was back in business.

With the game beginning to open up, Setanta O'hAilpin snapped one out of a ruck contest and Fev booted his fifth after the siren to put his side just one point behind.

Roughead struck again to start a thrilling final term and when Franklin finally got loose to add a couple more it looked like the Hawks by how far.

Kade Simpson, who laboured bravely after copping a corkie early in the game, started the rally and Fev banged through another two to set up the nail-biting finale that ended when the Hawks were able to work the ball into their forward 50 after Fevola's poster.

Hawthorn    5.0 9.2 11.9 16.10 (106)
Carlton    3.2 7.5 11.8 15.12 (102)

GOALS
Hawthorn: Roughead 8, Franklin 2, Dew 2, Brown, Osborne, Moss, Williams,
Carlton: Fevola 8, Betts 2, Carrazzo, Scotland, Stevens, O'hAilpin, Simpson,

BEST
Hawthorn: Roughead, Sewell, Lewis, Mitchell, Dowler, Dew
Carlton: Judd, Fevola, Murphy, Simpson, Carrazzo, Gibbs, Bower

INJURIES
Hawthorn: Nil
Carlton: Nil

Reports: Nil

Umpires: Margetts, McLaren, Armstrong

Official crowd: 69,014 at the MCG