HAWTHORN coach Alastair Clarkson said the Hawks don’t get enough credit for their leg speed, despite some commentators saying that would be a weakness for the reigning premiers against the Western Bulldogs tomorrow night.

Speaking to the media before training this morning at Waverley Park, Clarkson said the Hawks were confident they could match the Dogs on the outside.

“I’d reckon we’ve got a little bit of leg speed on the outside too that perhaps we don’t get too much credit for – I don’t mind that,” he said.

“The game will be won and lost by the team which can get their hands on the ball the most – if that’s the Dogs, we’re in trouble and if it’s us, they’re in trouble.”

Clarkson said he didn’t expect his side to come out flat tomorrow night following an intense game against Geelong last week.

“It was a pretty intense game as you would expect in a final last week,” he said.

“We were pretty flat after last year’s performance against the West Coast Eagles (in the qualifying final), but this is a proud group and we expect our players to play well tomorrow night.”

The four-time premiership coach said last week’s after-the-siren loss to the Cats was just a simple case of missed opportunities.

The Hawks had nine more inside 50s than their opposition last week, but couldn’t translate that into scoreboard pressure.

“We’ve played some pretty solid footy throughout the course of the year and we needed to play well last week to give ourselves a chance,” Clarkson said.

“We had our chances, we didn’t quite make the most of them and Geelong did.”

The Hawks found plenty of footy in open space last week against the Cats, racking up 260 uncontested possessions and 107 uncontested marks.

Clarkson said it was important that Hawthorn was able to not just control the ball against the Dogs, but also match them at the coal face.

“Control of the ball is always important, it doesn’t matter who’s playing,” he said.

“The team who wins the ball the most usually wins the game, so that’s every team’s goal, you don’t want to be giving the opposition the ball.

“We’ll be trying to get our hands on the footy, the Bulldogs are really strong in that area so that’s going to be a real key battle.”

Both Hawthorn and the Western Bulldogs will name their sides for tomorrow night’s semi final at 6.25pm AEST tonight.