HAWTHORN coach Alastair Clarkson says North Melbourne is a dangerous opponent who will warrant the Hawks' full attention.
While the Hawks are top, they must beat the Kangaroos on Saturday afternoon at Etihad Stadium to guarantee a home qualifying final.
Hawthorn cannot fall out of the top four, but Clarkson said he will pay no attention to Saturday's massive games involving its other prospective qualifying final opponents.
Geelong hosts the Sydney Swans and fourth-placed Fremantle is at home against in-form Port Adelaide.
"As coaches, all our focus is really on the Kangaroos," Clarkson said.
"We'll have our opposition scouts watching those sides we potentially play against in the next four or five weeks - we need to be prepared.
"But my focus and that of our assistant coaches is all about (North Melbourne)."
The only way 10th-placed North can make the top eight is if it wins its last two games, other results fall its way and the AFL somehow strips Essendon of premiership points.
But the Kangaroos continue to fight, scoring big wins over Geelong and Essendon in the past three weeks.
"We have a fair amount of regard for the way North Melbourne go about it," Clarkson said.
"You only need to look at their percentage - that's usually a pretty good guide.
"The general public usually just look at wins and losses, but for coaches, percentage is a really good guide for where a side is at.
"There's another stat out there about percentage of time in front - the Kangaroos I think are the fourth-best in the competition."
North's percentage of 122.4 is the best of all teams outside the top four.
The Roos cruelled their finals hopes with a series of costly fadeouts in close matches.
Saturday's game will be a good test of how well Hawthorn have learnt its lessons from three weeks ago.
Coming off a massive win over Essendon, Hawthorn was jumped by Richmond and suffered an upset loss.
While the Hawks followed up the Richmond game by beating St Kilda and a big win over Collingwood, North on its day could well knock them off balance again.
"Our form certainly on Friday night against Collingwood was much better than the week before against St Kilda," Clarkson said.
"But we need to start building towards our best footy now.
"It's hard - we're going to be coming up against really strong opponents in the last part of the year.
"Our task isn't going to get any easier ... we'd like to think our group is really energised and looking forward to the finals."
After the Kangaroos, Hawthorn has a big away match against the Sydney Swans the week before the finals.
Defender Brent Guerra returns from a knee injury and Jed Anderson will play his first senior game since round three.
