A MAMMOTH stint on the sidelines for four-time premiership hero Grant Birchall could extend the Hawthorn backman's career by three years, coach Alastair Clarkson believes.

Birchall returned for the Hawks' 31-point win over Fremantle at University of Tasmania Stadium on Saturday afternoon and amassed 21 disposals in what was largely a neat display, albeit with a couple of signs of rust.

It was his first outing in 740 days. A brutal knee injury forced him to miss plenty of time, while soft-tissue injuries have plagued him more recently.

Grant Birchall was straight back into the thick of things in Launceston. Picture: AFL Photos

The 31-year-old has missed the bulk of this year, all of last season and managed just five games in 2017.

His contract expires at season's end but that doesn't mean his career will as well.

HAWKS NOT DONE YET Full match details and stats

"He's effectively missed three years of footy," Clarkson said.

"People say 'Birchall's over 30, will you make a decision on him at the end of the year?'. If he hasn't played for effectively three years, then we've got three years of a fresh player up our sleeve in a sense, as long as his knee can cope with the rigours of the game.

"That's a little bit of an 'if', because he had a serious PCL injury and they're nasty injuries, but we think we've got a fresh player now.

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"If we can, over the next six weeks, see what he can do to our defence to help rebound the ball a bit better. There's a lot of sides out there that would've been pleased in a sense, not that anyone's pleased that an opposition player's out injured, it would've been pleasing to have played Hawthorn without Birchall in the side for the last two-and-a-half years."

At 7-9, an unlikely finals berth is within reach if the Hawks finish well, and while Clarkson is aware of that, he isn't looking too far ahead.

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"We've been inconsistent ourselves (so) we're not really looking ahead any more than getting consistency from week-to-week," Clarkson said.

"Our last three weeks have been pretty good. We just got over the line against Collingwood last week and just failed to get over the line against West Coast.

"What it's been on the back of is just strong, hard effort. Hopefully we'll just work our way back into a position where we might be able to challenge later in the year."

Next up for Hawthorn is Geelong, next Sunday afternoon at the MCG.