TO BEAT a champion team, you have to be fully committed yourselves. That's the message from Hawks youngster Clinton Young after his team knocked off the West Coast Eagles 15.9 (99) to 8.16 (64) at their home-away-from-home, Aurora Stadium.

"We played well for the full four quarters, I thought, especially in the third quarter when we lifted to get the winning break," he said in the jubilant Hawks rooms after the match. "It was a great team effort.

"One of our focuses every game is to pressure the opposition and hopefully they'll turn the ball over more towards our goal, so we can get a better scoring opportunity. If we pressure them in their defence, we can turn it over quicker to get a goal."

The Hawks have now won six of nine games this season and the lanky winger said the team had been doing a good job, despite a lapse in the west.

"It was disappointing to lose to Fremantle over there - we had the game by the neck – but we've been playing well. Down here, we're a really good team, we play well here. We knew if we pressured them well, we should get on top of them."

Exciting West Coast youngsters Matt Rosa and Beau Waters were the 21-year-old's opponents on the day, and he finished with 23 disposals, 11 marks and three tackles.

"I had a good tussle with Matt – we played a lot of hard man-on-man, so it was hard to get loose to get the ball. It was a good contest in the end, me and him. But they play really man-on-man, so it was hard to get free on the wing.

"Our strengths are when we have stoppages from the centre back, we run hard and we create space. Our running players really have to run hard to make space. If we run hard we create opportunities for our forwards."