HAWTHORN coach Alastair Clarkson will seek more clarity on a contentious advantage call that threatened to cost his side victory against Essendon at the MCG on Saturday.

Holding a 17-point lead deep into the final term, Hawk James Worpel was adjudged to have taken advantage after a crunching Liam Shiels tackle on David Zaharakis won the Hawks a free kick.

Worpel raised his hand in an attempt to halt play with little success, the Bombers converging on the first-year midfielder to win the ball back and go coast-to-coast for a Jake Stringer goal.

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The 19-year-old watched on as Cale Hooker trimmed the margin to four points before holding his own in a contest against Michael Hurley to give the Hawks a 10-point buffer.   

Clarkson said he would look to speak to the umpiring department for an explanation on the decision.

"I've seen exactly that occurrence where he pulled up to say, 'No, no I don't want to take the advantage', I've seen that happen 20 times in games and they say we'll allow you to (stop) but on this occasion it doesn't happen," Clarkson said.

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"I do know it's a rule at centre bounce, if there's an infringement, they do actually stop the game (to say) the infringement is to 'that player'.

"I just need to check if that's at stoppage as well. It might be that I'm wrong, (I'm) happy to be, I just need to get it cleared so we can educate our players in that way."

Worpel joked he could hear Clarkson's wrath after coughing up the ball.

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"I was a bit nervous, I could probably hear Clarko from the box I reckon, I was lucky it came back and I kicked one," Worpel said post-game.

Clarkson agreed: "I think he might have heard it from the coach's box, Worpy. I think I might have been screaming on that one."

The win put the Hawks into third place before Port Adelaide, Collingwood, Greater Western Sydney and Melbourne get the chance to push in front later in the weekend.

After back-to-back wins over Fremantle and Carlton, Clarkson said the result against the Bombers gave the Hawks a greater understanding ahead of the run home. 

"(It's been) hard to get a gauge on us, including us as coaches and players at our club," he said.

"With no disrespect to Carlton and Fremantle, they've both been battling at different stages this year.

"The last two weeks hasn't really give us a good gauge but today did.

"It also gave us a gauge that despite the win, if we don't play a bit better than that then we're going to find a loss pretty soon."

While Jack Gunston bagged five in attack, the Hawks had Ben Stratton to thank for carrying the load down back as the Bombers opened up a 13-point lead midway through the third term.

The triple premiership player finished with a game-high seven intercept marks and 11 intercept possessions.

"Every high-quality defence has got a player like him," Clarkson said.

"It's probably good that he's getting a little bit of credit because he's been doing that for us for 10 years.

"To get as many intercept marks as he did was first-class but his whole season has been really strong for us. He's really, really highly regarded by our club and his teammates in particular."

The Hawks front up at the MCG in seven days' time against Geelong where a win would go a long way to earning a finals berth for the first time since 2016.

"We're playing little finals, which is great for the exposure of our players," Clarkson said.

"We haven't been there (finals) for a couple of years, we're keen to give our young blokes a taste for it and some of our older guys are trying to steer them in that manner.

"Who knows once you get there where it takes you but we've still got some work to do to get there."

In a further boost, Clarkson said he was hopeful running defender Grant Birchall would return before the end of the home and away season.