Assistant coach Henry Playfair shares his thoughts for this week's Coaches Column, thanks to Cellarbrations, ahead of Saturday night's clash with Hawthorn.

We’re up against Hawthorn, the reigning premiers and a side which demolished the top team less than a week ago. It serves as a massive test…

It’s as you’d expect, big game on a Saturday night against a really good team. It’s a massive challenge for the group and one we’re really looking forward to.

They’re so balanced on every line, their backs, forwards and mids are first class while they use the ball well and they’re hard at the ball.

It makes them very hard to beat.

Have you watched the Hawthorn and Fremantle game at all?

Yeah, we watched that during the week and it really showed you what they’re capable of when they’re playing well.

To beat the top team by 72 points was an incredible effort.

Was it surprising?

Yeah it was. Fremantle has been the team to beat for at least the first half of the year but Hawthorn has certainly got its mojo back in the last six weeks.

Fremantle would be disappointed with the loss, but it just goes to show how good the Hawks are playing.

Lance Franklin has a chance at kicking his 700^th goal. It’s a massive achievement…

I haven’t even thought about it that too much, to be honest.

It’s a good individual milestone for him, but I’m sure he’s like me and would take a win over any individual milestone so that’s what we’re focused on.

In Round 8 against the Hawks, Franklin was kept goalless but we still won. Is it a positive that we’re not always relying on Buddy’s boot?

It’s a good feeling that we can get the job down without him kicking goals - that was a positive on that night.

Obviously, we’d like the best of both worlds in that he kicks a few and so does the rest of the group.

That’s in an ideal world, but if we lose one of those hoping we get the other.

Does that put a bit more emphasis on the midfielders to push forward to hit the scoreboard?

The great thing about  our goal-kicking, everyone shares the load meaning our midfielders can spend time forward and kick goals while we have notable goal-kickers who are more than capable of helping us in that area.

Hopefully that unfolds on Saturday night.

Where is that forward pressure going to come from since we don’t have Gary Rohan and Ben McGlynn who are renowned defensive forwards?

We’re looking for all of our guys in that area to stand up.

We’ve bought in Brandon Jack and Craig Bird. They have been doing it well in the NEAFL so they’ll boost us in terms of front half speed and tackling pressure.

Our big guys do it well, Adam Goodes has been doing it for years and hasn’t lost it while Lance Franklin does it week in week out.

We’ll be looking for all of those guys to get the job done, as well as our resting midfielders.