JORDAN Lewis is certain Hawthorn won't be daunted by Fremantle's hostile home crowd in Friday night's preliminary final, despite admitting the Hawks were "intimidated" by West Coast's parochial supporters.
The Hawks are flying west for the second time in as many weeks to play a final at Domain Stadium, and will start favourites given their outstanding record against Fremantle.
Lewis said the back-to-back premiers had learnt from their qualifying final defeat to the Eagles and believed the Hawks' big-game experience would give them an edge.
Mitchell unfazed by prospect of Crowley tag
"I've got no doubt that playing over there two weeks ago in front of a really loud home crowd that will hold is in good stead going over there this time," Lewis said at Melbourne Airport on Wednesday.
"It's pretty vivid in our memories. We were intimidated a little bit by the crowd, but I think we've learnt our lessons from that game and hopefully we prepare ourselves a little bit differently for the crowd this time.
"We've played in big games a lot in recent years. But probably the two games leading into the finals, it wasn't as big and it wasn't as vocal, so it shouldn't have come as a shock but we probably weren’t ready for it.
"We got overawed by it a little bit."
An advance party of six Hawks boarded the plane to Perth on Wednesday, although star forward Jack Gunston (ankle) wasn't among them.
The Hawks ruled Gunston out on Wednesday afternoon, confirming their top goalscorer had not recovered in time for the preliminary final.
Skipper Luke Hodge, Shaun Burgoyne, Jarryd Roughead, Isaac Smith, ruckman Jonathon Ceglar and Lewis checked-in on the earlier flight, with the rest of their teammates to follow on Thursday.
They were the same six players who flew to Perth early two weeks ago before the Eagles clash, with Ceglar seemingly an outside chance to be recalled to face Aaron Sandilands, who could hold the key for the home side.
Hawthorn has dominated the Dockers under Ross Lyon's reign, winning five of the six clashes since 2012.
Although Freo won the only clash in Perth by 19 points last year, the Hawks are strong favourites to advance to a fourth-straight Grand Final.
"They've obviously had a break, so that helps them maybe, but I think it's a pretty even match when you look at both sides," Lewis said.
Lewis said the Hawks "don't care" if Freo tagger Ryan Crowley earns a remarkable recall after 12 months sidelined by a drug ban for the preliminary final.
But star midfielder Nat Fyfe might cause them headaches, even though the Hawks nullified the Brownlow Medal frontrunner when they thumped Freo by 72 points in Launceston in round 15.
Lewis played down the suggestion the Hawks targeted Fyfe for a physical battering, but said his teammates needed to be at their intimidating best to overcome the Dockers.
"We didn't specifically target Nat Fyfe. He's a good player, he's going to get his fair share of the ball so you've just got to try and quell their influence and hopefully they don't have a big impact on the game," he said.
"You look at (David) Mundy, (Michael) Barlow, Fyfe – they're really quality players – so we're going to have to be on our game and finals are won with a physical side of the game as well, so no doubt we'll have to be on with that."
