The Bombers had their best performance of the last few weeks when they ran Adelaide to within a goal at AAMI Stadium on Friday night, while the Bulldogs inflicted the first loss on the Hawks this season.
Knights said he thought the result would sting the Hawks into action.
"I watched the entire game. It was a pretty hard, difficult contest, and obviously the Western Bulldogs are a very good side, so you would think that would be enough stimulus for Hawthorn to come out and play strong footy," he said.
"We'd expect them to be on the top of their game. We're looking forward to it."
Despite the loss to the Crows, Knights said his team had achieved significant goals in the match.
"We played decent footy without winning the game. We went over with a plan to win the game – we didn't do that, so that was disappointing, but the pleasing aspect out of the game was our younger players. I believe some of them took another step in the right direction.
"And we attacked the game – we attacked Adelaide defensively, and we attacked when we had the ball. That was our plan, and it all but paid off – we took the game to the wire."
The Bulldogs won by breaking down and threading their way through the Hawks' rolling zone – Clarko's Cluster – but the first-year coach said he couldn't afford to concentrate too hard on the opposition.
"The zone is a part of Hawthorn's game that's obviously a strength, but you can't just go into the game just thinking about that. We've got to stick to some parameters and some strengths of ours out of last week's game – focus on the Essendon football club, and developing our club."
