HAWTHORN is better placed this year to hit peak form in the final two weeks of the season than it was in its ill-fated 2012 finals campaign, coach Alastair Clarkson believes.
Just as they did in last year's qualifying final, the Hawks capitalised on their top-of-the table finish to the home and away season on Friday night, beating the Sydney Swans by 54 points to book a home preliminary final in two weeks' time.
Clarkson said the Hawks had learned some lessons from last season, when they seemed strangely flat in their five-point preliminary final win over Adelaide and 10-point Grand Final loss to the Swans.
Clarkson said those changes had included trying to introduce a greater spread of goalkickers, exposing a wide group of players to senior football and taking a cautious approach to injuries.
"We've worked particularly hard on that right throughout the course of the year to get a spread of goalkickers," Clarkson said after his side had 11 players hit the scoreboard on Friday night.
"Whenever we've had an injury, we've made sure we've just rested that player.
"We've had a greater depth of players and given more kids opportunities throughout the course of the year, just so that we're really energised for this time of the year.
"We want to play our best footy in September if we can."
Clarkson was also confident the fact the Hawks had effectively assured themselves a top-four finish early in 2013 with their outstanding start to the season had them better placed than last year.
The Hawks were 5-4 last season after the first nine rounds, and despite fighting back to clinch the minor premiership, they did not secure a top-four spot until the final few rounds.
This year, the Hawks bounced back from an opening-round loss against Geelong to win their next 12 games, giving themselves the inside running for a top-four spot that was never threatened.
"We were having to fight really hard to finish in the top four last year. That took a lot of energy to do that and we just petered out a little bit at the most important part of the year, which was disappointing," Clarkson said.
"Hopefully this time around we're better energised and ready for the contest."
Clarkson was really proud of his players' effort against the Swans, saying they had dug deep to claw their way past the reigning premiers after a frantic and even first half.
Most encouragingly, the coach felt the Hawks' performance suggested they were ready to hit peak form in the preliminary final.
"There's a lot of energy in the way that we played tonight, and if we can continue in that type of manner in the prelim final, then we give ourselves a great chance to progress through to a Grand Final," Clarkson said.
