HAWTHORN wants to see a lift in intensity against St Kilda in Thursday night's NAB Challenge match, as the Hawks narrow their focus ahead of a round one meeting with arch-rivals Geelong, stand-in coach Brendon Bolton says.

The Saints clash is the Hawks' final pre-season hit-out and the back-to-back premiers face a long break before they take on the Cats on Easter Monday.

Hawthorn has named 19 of last year's premiership team to face the understrength Saints, after losing its two previous matches against Collingwood and North Melbourne.

The Hawks fielded a young side against the Pies, but were slightly disappointed with their effort against the Roos after playing a strong lineup.

Bolton said the Hawks weren't concerned by the defeats, but wanted to see a step up in intensity this week.

"The focus has been about building game time. The first one was a really young team, a bit more mature in the second game, and this one we go even more experience," Bolton said.

"We can't control what St Kilda can do but we can control our intensity levels and really manage our game time.

"I know I'm being repetitive there, but our focus is really strongly on how we go about it."

However Bolton, who will be the third Hawks assistant to sit in the hot seat in place of Alastair Clarkson this pre-season, said the club had been pleased with the team's pre-season as a whole.

"AFL footballers and particularly ours, we've got a lot of leaders with a lot of experience, we couldn't have been happier with their pre-season and their intensity levels," he said.

"We just want them to progress slightly in intensity levels each week leading into round one."

Veteran ruckman David Hale has been rested from the Saints match, but Cyril Rioli and 33-year-old backman Brian Lake will play their second pre-season games.

Bolton said Rioli was looking "really strong" and "fit and fast" after a heavy workload on his troublesome hamstrings, while he confirmed Lake could be rested at times during the season.

"He's been building up (over pre-season). The one thing he has done is come back in really good nick. You can see he looks fit and trim," Bolton said.

"We may not need him to play every game this season, but we'll see how he progresses."