CHRIS Fagan has talked down the significance of coaching against Hawthorn for the first time, but conceded there was "a cone of silence" between him and Alastair Clarkson ahead of Saturday's game in Launceston.
Fagan was Clarkson's right-hand man for nine seasons at the Hawks before accepting the Brisbane Lions job last October.
"Clarko and I have been friends for 20 years and we're still friends," Fagan said.
"We still speak to each other.
"There's probably been the cone of silence for a couple of weeks now leading up to this game."
Hawthorn has started to right its poor start to the season, winning two of its past three matches, and the Hawks are hot favourites to beat Fagan's men at the University of Tasmania Stadium.
Fagan said he was looking forward to the game, but wouldn’t bombard his players with inside knowledge of the Hawks.
"It's funny, you can be away from the club for not a very long period of time and things change," he said.
"Their personnel has changed a little bit.
"I know Clarko and he's always tweaking his game-plan, so the way they've played in previous years would be a little bit different.
"In a way it helps a little that you know the habits and strengths and weaknesses of each player, but ultimately I can tell all our players that stuff and it might confuse them.
"With our young group we're trying to keep things simple and work on the things that we're trying to get better at rather than focus on Hawthorn's strengths and weaknesses."
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The Lions will be without Mitch Robinson (broken foot), further depleting a midfield already missing skipper Dayne Beams (quad) and Allen Christensen (collarbone).
Fagan said people should not be too quick to judge Hawthorn's 2-5 season start.
"I think they're back on the up," he said.
"We need to judge Hawthorn at the end of the year, not now. They're a very talented football team and I expect they'll improve as the year goes on."
