ADDING Hawthorn skipper Luke Hodge to the team is just one reason coach Alastair Clarkson can see the Hawks improving in the second half of the season.
Despite a perception the Hawks have not yet reached top gear in 2016, they sit on the top of the ladder after 14 rounds with 11 wins and three losses.
Clarkson said they had worked hard to be in a reasonable position but he hoped there was more improvement in the team.
"Just the simple fact that our captain might play a fair bulk of the second half of the year will be really important for us," Clarkson said.
Hodge made a successful return in his first game since round six, picking up 28 disposals and controlling the defensive 50 in the second half.
It was the skipper's fifth game for the season but he showed in his comeback performance he had not lost any of his champion qualities.
"He just reads the game so well and just gives us so much more flexibility because he can play forward, back and midfield," Clarkson said.
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The senior coach, who is aiming for his fourth-consecutive flag, said the Hawks hoped for continual improvement from the impressive young players introduced into the team in James Sicily, Tim O'Brien and Kaiden Brand.
"These younger players that have come in that are marking players, that are taller players for us, can really complement our side quite nicely in the back end or the front end," Clarkson said.
Brand was playing just his fourth game while Sicily and O'Brien have now played 32 games between them and are becoming more reliable each game.
"Flexibility in your side is really important," Clarkson said.
"We try to educate our young players with that as well … if we can get that flexibility in our side we can be a more potent side."
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Clarkson said the Hawks would take a deep breath during the bye and then focus all their energies on Port Adelaide, who has beaten the Hawks in three of their last four encounters with Hawthorn's narrow victory in the 2014 preliminary final breaking the sequence.
He knows their best is good enough and says the key to improvement will be more consistency from quarter to quarter.
"We've played some really good footy and we have particularly played well when we have really needed to play well," Clarkson said.
WATCH: Alastair Clarkson's full post-match press conference
