JARRYD Roughead says Hawthorn won't second-guess its tough brand of football, despite Port Adelaide's Hamish Hartlett calling the Hawks 'bullies'.

Ahead of the teams' Anzac Day clash on Saturday night, Hartlett has claimed the back-to-back premiers have "bullied teams into beating them" with their physicality so far this season.

The Power midfielder's comment could add some spice to the already mouth-watering preliminary final re-match from last season, when the surging Power almost overran the flagging Hawks in an instant classic at the MCG.

But, speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Roughead denied the Hawks were 'bullies', and said the Hawks simply prided themselves on winning the hard ball.

"He can call us bullies, but I don't think we are," Roughead said.

"We've been playing that kind of footy for the last five or six years, so I don't think it's anything new amongst us.

"I think amongst the contest you've got to be hard in and in and under because if you're second to the prune you're not going to be able to get your hands on it.

"I think we've been known as one of those footy sides that get in and under amongst the contest and within the club we know that it's a pretty big area we've got to be good at."

Hawthorn dominated contested ball (+30) in their first round bruising of Geelong, but paid the price a week later when that number plummeted to +3 in a two-point loss to Essendon.

However, the Hawks rebounded against the Western Bulldogs last Sunday (+22) in a thumping 70-point win in Launceston.

Port Adelaide has lost the contested ball in all three of its games, but its best result (-2) coincided with its first win of the season over North Melbourne last week.

Roughead said the blueprint to beat the Power was to stop their run, which started at the contest.

"It will be a major part of it and also trying to stay with them early," he said.

"They're very good at quick starts over there at Adelaide Oval – especially with that crowd that gets behind them.

"Once they get a bit of a run on it makes it pretty hard to play catch up footy.

"If we're in the contest and close on the scoreboard at quarter-time and half-time we're in with a real shot in the second half."

The Hawks lost the corresponding match by 14 points last season, but were missing a raft of key players including Roughead, who bagged seven goals against the Dogs in Launceston.

This week the Hawks are expected to welcome back speedy wingman Bradley Hill (concussion), while Roughead expected Cyril Rioli (shoulder) and Paul Puopolo (corked leg) would board the plane to Adelaide.