HAWTHORN coach Alastair Clarkson has challenged his young players to back up promising performances in their pre-season opener with more of the same in Saturday night's NAB Cup quarter-final against Carlton.

Defender Xavier Ellis, midfielder Beau Muston and forward Jarryd Morton were among a flock of young Hawks to impress in their AFL side's two-point win over Sydney in the NAB Cup opener in Launceston last weekend.

But Hawthorn is in the luxurious position of having 42 of their 44-player list fit and well a month out from the start of the home-and-away season.

That means any youngsters with eyes on selection for round one against Melbourne will need to keep applying the pressure, starting with Saturday night's clash with the resurgent Blues at Telstra Dome.

"It's a great opportunity for a number of players, these guys who've been around our system for 12 months or two years, to show how they can perform," Clarkson said.

"They've had really good blocks of training and they should have enormous confidence out of their training load and performances last week.

"The big challenge is now how they transfer that good training form into form in games.

"It's all about getting confidence and belief you can play at the level."

The Hawks have committed to exposing their young players to as much top-level football as possible during the NAB Cup, keeping comeback player Stuart Dew and experienced Trent Croad in cotton wool until later in the pre-season.

Both have been left out of the Hawks squad this week.

"We've always said with Dewy we'd play him about NAB (week) three or NAB four, and the same with Croady," Clarkson said.

"If round one was this week, those blokes would be able to play.

"We just need to monitor when is the best time to bring those guys into the mix in terms of getting some match conditioning to be ready for round one."

Carlton has been weakened with the loss of gun forward Brad Fisher with a broken thumb, while new skipper Chris Judd is not expected to make his debut until later in the pre-season.

But ex-Brisbane recruit Richard Hadley could make his Blues debut after recovering from serious knee injuries which have cruelled his career for the past two years.

Midfielder Hadley, who played in the Lions' 2003 premiership win in just his fourth senior game, joined the Blues during trade week last year.