For the second time this season the Hawks led the Cats into the final term only to give up 31 points and the match down the stretch.

The visitors big men also made an impact with Perth out-rebounding Illawarra 45-33 and out-scoring them in second chance points 20-10.

Beveridge didn’t mince words in describing the performance post-match.

‘‘It was heartbreaking, gut-wrenching, disappointing...all those negative words,’’ Beveridge said.

‘‘It was a horrible, horrible finish again. I’m very very disappointed with that.’’

Beveridge was not at a loss to pinpoint what went wrong after his side led by 11 at the final change.

‘‘We stopped playing defence and stopped rebounding. It’s as simple as that,’’ he said.

‘‘We are the worst rebounding team in the league. 

‘‘We do so much at practice and talk about what we need to do but when it really really comes to the crunch our guys are mentally soft.

‘‘They don’t have the ability, right now as a group, to be able to close a game out like that one.

‘‘The difference between us and Perth is that they want to win the game more than we do.

‘‘They’ve got players in their team that have won championships and know what’s required to win and they do what they have to do to win.

‘‘Right now our players just don’t get that and that’s what we have to develop very very fast or we’ll fall away from the pack.

‘‘We can’t afford to keep choking down the stretch.’’

Big man AJ Ogilvy and star guard Kevin Lisch both put up 25 points in the Hawks fifth 90-plus score this season but it proved little comfort for Beveridge.

‘‘There was nothing wrong with what we did offensively,’’ he said.

‘‘We’re trying to play a good style of game that’s entertaining to watch and players enjoy playing but if these players can’t recognise what our true weaknesses are, which are defence and rebounding, we’re in deep trouble.

‘‘There’s plenty of time for us to sort that out but what frustrates me is that we’ve lost to Perth twice now down the stretch where the mental toughness wasn’t there.”

Despite his disappointment Beveridge is certain his side has the ability turn it around with four of their next five games on their home court.

‘‘The great thing about it, if you can call it great, is that I looked at the pain on the players’ faces,” he said.

‘‘They’re hurting and that means they care.

“If they were jovial about it I’d throw them out of the change room and I’d kick them off the team.

‘‘I know we’ve got the character of players to be able to address it but we cannot keep losing games where we are the better team for the majority of the game.”