KEY HAWTHORN defender Trent Croad could return to the side within a fortnight.

Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson said Croad, who broke his foot in the team's grand final win last year, was training well and could be back in contention within weeks.

"It could be two weeks, it could be six weeks – that will be determined by how well he pulls up from his training sessions in the next couple of weeks," Clarkson said at Tullamarine as the side flew out to Perth to take on the Eagles.

"But I've got no idea – it's been nearly 12 months since he's played.

"He'll step up his training, he has done over the last two weeks – he's done about four or five skills sessions now with the players, and he'll step it up again next week.

"Our challenge for him returning to senior footy is whether he comes back via (VFL affiliate side) Box Hill or whether he goes straight into our senior side.

"Our senior side certainly needs his presence down there, but it'd be foolish, perhaps, to put him there straight away.

"But we'll just have to wait and see what players are available for us at the time that he's available to play."

The Hawks were belted by the Lions in the first week of the split round, and Clarkson said the chance to make amends has been a long time coming.

"It's always a long couple of weeks when you lose as poorly as we did against Brisbane, so we're looking forward to the game," he said.

"We were really disappointed with our second half, in particular, against Brisbane – the best part about footy, unlike the Olympics where you've got to wait for four years, usually with footy you've only got a week before you can try to redeem yourself.

"Unfortunately for us, we've had two weeks to actually go through our heads just how poor we were in that game, and we're pretty keen to make amends tomorrow night."

Clarkson said nothing special was done regarding mid-season reviews, despite the club's poor first half of the season.

"All footy clubs, a regular part of their review process is to analyse their own performance, whether that's good or bad, the things they can improve on, things they need to consolidate, and I don't think that's any different.

"We know that our performance was well below scratch against Brisbane and we need to perform better, otherwise the season will slip away from us."