ESSENDON defender Kyle Hardingham hopes his side can follow Geelong's lead and change its mindset for the Bombers' important clash against Hawthorn on Friday night.??

On the back of a disappointing defeat to Collingwood in round 16, the Cats rebounded with a 67-point thumping of the Bombers last week.

Hardingham said he expected the Bombers' attitude to be altered for the clash with the Hawks after seeing first-hand how the Cats returned to form.

"I think the biggest thing was that we knew the Cats were going to come out firing after the week before and on the night they hunted us and really got the numbers to the ball," he said on Monday.

"We know we're a resilient team now, so we know that when we're under the pump and things aren't going our way, that we can turn it around and we can hunt them."

The Bombers have leaked more than 20 goals in two of their past three games, but Hardingham said the team's defensive group was playing well and wasn't daunted by the challenge of Hawthorn's in-form attack.??

"I love the task knowing that the forwards we are playing against are coming into good form, but I think our defence is in pretty good form too.

"Under the circumstances of how much the ball came in on Friday night, I still thought the defence handled themselves pretty well. I definitely think the back six is up for the task."

Hardingham admitted the Bombers' backline sometimes felt a little helpless in defending Geelong as it streamed through the middle of the ground with little pressure, and identified it as the most pressing area for improvement.

"Sometimes you feel like a few of the players are getting by-passed and it's really hard when you've got someone like Tom Hawkins clunking everything," he said.

"We know that a big thing for us is lifting our defensive pressure. At the start of the year it was one of the best and I think this week we'll do that. We did it against Carlton so there's no reason we can't do it against Hawthorn."??

Callum Twomey is a reporter for the AFL website. Follow him on Twitter at @AFL_CalTwomey.