HAWTHORN will enter the finals series as the most potent side in the competition with three of its forwards having kicked 50 or more goals during the home and away season.
Jack Gunston's five-goal bag in the Hawks' 65-point win over Collingwood on Friday night saw the dead-eye join teammates Luke Breust and Jarryd Roughead as a 50-plus goalkicker in 2014.
The latter two also boosted their tallies against the Pies, with Roughead kicking four goals to finish with 62 majors and Breust slotting one to close the home and away season with 53 goals.
Gunston's haul saw him end with 51, a career-best total, and the Hawks feel their options in attack are difficult to cover.
"It's a positive that our forward line can function really well together and fill the void that 'Bud' (former Hawks star Lance Franklin) left last year," Gunston told AFL.com.au.
"But it's not just us, there's probably others who are around the 20-goal mark who contribute as well so it's good.
"It means that if one or two of us are down the other one can be up and about kicking goals. We don't rely on one or two people. We're a selfless forward line and it showed tonight."
Coach Alastair Clarkson agreed, saying the club had worked hard over the last two to three seasons to spread the goalkicking load, even before Franklin departed the club to join the Sydney Swans at the end of last season.
"When [Franklin] was here last year we wanted to have potency across all our forwards, not just one. We've worked on it as a footy club and three of our guys have kicked over 50 goals, so that's good that we've got dangerous targets up there," Clarkson said.
Injured star Cyril Rioli has also kicked 21 goals in just 11 games, and would add another dynamic to the Hawks' front half if he manages to recover in time to feature in the finals.
"We'd be hopeful he can come back later in the finals but only time will tell with that," Clarkson said.
Despite the Hawks' lacklustre start to their clash with the Magpies, they were able to concentrate on the task at hand and win convincingly. Gunston said the players weren't pre-occupied by thinking too far ahead.
"You know finals are there but you want to be playing in the moment," he said.
"We knew Collingwood was going to come out as they did, and if we were thinking ahead, that start of the game probably would have kept going.
"It was good that we could get the ball back on our terms and play the way we wanted to."
