Hawthorn Coach Sam Mitchell says his side will face another tough test when it faces a top-four Melbourne at the MCG this Sunday.

Speaking to the media on Friday, Mitchell acknowledged the challenge that awaits against the Dees, in particular, highlighting the influence of captain Max Gawn.

"Max is playing his 200th game, he's just one of the icons of the game, there is very few players who can influence a game like he can," Mitchell said. 

"Ned Reeves did a good job on Tim English last week, but he's now going to be up against the best ruckman of this generation, I think it's going to be a challenge for him.

"Max Ramsden is going to come into the side, he'll help out with a bit of second ruck, alongside Jacob Koschitzke.

"There's a bit of inexperience there, but maybe that can give us a bit of upside... we're excited about what our rucks can do and it will be a great contest."

Despite an impressive fortnight that has seen Hawthorn claim two upset wins against Collingwood and the Western Bulldogs, Mitchell said there was still plenty of work and improvements to be made.

"We hope that our season goes five weeks longer very soon, so we certainly don't feel like we're ready to finish the season," Mitchell said. 

"Sometimes you get to this time of year and you're looking to the end, but we've done everything in our power to avoid that and we've seen good responses from the players so far, but there is still two more games to go.

"In the last couple weeks we've clearly taken some big steps forward, but that progress won't be in a straight line, hopefully we can continue to improve at a fast rate.

"We've never put any speed limit on how fast we can get to where we want to go, but we understand there's a lot of learning and development to be done within this group to make sure we are sustainably a top side like Melbourne who we play this week."

Watch the full press conference from Mitchell below.