THE MAGPIES won't underestimate the undermanned Hawks when they commence their planning for Sunday's clash at the MCG despite their opposition's depleted line up.

The Hawks, already without players like Jarryd Roughead (achilles), Cameron Bruce (knee), Stephen Gilham (knee), Ben Stratton (knee), Brent Renouf (gall bladder) and Ryan Schoenmakers (foot), lost Cyril Rioli (hamstring) and Brad Sewell (knee) on Friday night against Essendon. 

They then lost Jordan Lewis on Tuesday night when midfielder was suspended by the tribunal for two weeks.

Captain Nick Maxwell and forward Travis Cloke believe their growing list of unavailable players is no reason to take the Hawks - who have won seven of their past eight games, and five of their past six against the Pies - lightly.

"When you lose quality players like we did against Melbourne, you just expect guys to step up and play their role and take over," Maxwell said on Wednesday.

"While the Hawks have lost some quality players, they have so many young guys that are a bit of the unknown that we haven't see a lot of that have been excellent all year, like [Matt] Suckling and [Shane] Savage and [Liam] Shiels.

"We have to make sure we have a look at them and actually get to see all their strengths and weaknesses and go from there."

Cloke said the Magpies hadn't concerned themselves with the Hawks' projected line up, and had earmarked the round 15 clash as a huge challenge regardless of who they put out on the field.

"We're both in the top half of the ladder and we're looking forward to the challenge [because] they knocked us off last year before we went into the finals," he told afl.com.au this week.

"They've got some young players in there playing fantastic football, they're kicking goals and getting lots of the ball and setting the ball up in their forward half.

"We can't take them lightly, as you don't any week."

The Hawks will be strengthened by the return of Lance Franklin, who is available after serving a one-match suspension on the weekend.

Maxwell said stopping the player he considered the "most valuable going around" was crucial to the Pies' success, and that influencing the game so he pushed into the midfield would be a focus. 

"I think that Buddy up the ground is easier to manage because he's not kicking goals from 60m or snapping them around his corner," he said.

"I haven't seen a player who can kick goals facing sideways from the goals from 50 or 60 metres like he can.

"You can get a spoil in and it comes to ground but he follows it up better than anyone as well so the further we can push him up the ground, the less damage he can do on the scoreboard, so that would be a start.

"We've got a couple of key backs who are in excellent form themselves in 'Tazza' [Chris Tarrant] and Ben Reid and I'm sure at different times those two guys will play on him in turns."

Maxwell said the Magpies would concentrate on how best to combat the Hawks' short-kicking game in the second half of this week.

He also said he was pleased to reach a career milestone of 150 AFL games but was more concerned with the team's continuing success that recording any personal landmarks.

"You only ever want to play one game and once you get that taste of one, you want to play two and three and four," he said.

"I guess you never really aim to get a certain number but it's something that's an achievement to get there but having said that, I just want to keep winning,

"The success we tasted last year is something I want to do over and over again."