HAWTHORN should be able to pick from a near full-strength squad for Thursday night's crunch clash against Adelaide, with midfielder Isaac Smith confident the Hawks can put their inconsistent form behind them as they push for the top four.

The Hawks are in unfamiliar territory, sitting sixth on the ladder with a 6-4 win-loss record, but will be vying for their third successive win when they travel to Adelaide Oval.

Grant Birchall (ankle) and Paul Puopolo (foot) both trained on Monday and appear likely to squeeze back into the side that belted St Kilda before the bye.

"My guess is if they're fit, they're probably playing," Smith said.

Will Langford (calf) could also win a recall to help combat the Crows' star midfield, led by newly re-signed Rory Sloane and Patrick Dangerfield - who had 41 touches and received three Brownlow votes in his side's fourth-straight loss to Hawthorn last year.

"'Langers' trained and trained pretty well, and I think he played pretty well (in the VFL) last week, so he'll be knocking down the door as well," Smith said.

Smith said the playing group had taken stock over the bye and could be sparked into a winning run by their rollercoaster start to the year.

"I think it does help you reassess. When our goal is to finish top four, we know we've got to be winning more games than we're losing, and prior to the bye we probably weren't doing that overly well," Smith said.

"We're just looking for that consistency and I don't necessarily know if it will show up on win-losses, but just over a whole game I'm pretty confident individually and as a group that if we play consistent footy we're going to be pretty hard to beat."

The Crows – who sit 7th on the ladder with six wins – are also coming off the bye following their hard-fought victory over Carlton at the MCG in round 10.

The battling Blues got within nine points of upsetting Adelaide, partly by shutting down the Crows' leading goalkicker Eddie Betts (32 goals). Betts was paid close attention by Zach Tuohy and only booted one major against his former club – the first time in seven matches he failed to kick multiple goals.

"I'm guessing Carlton had a fair bit of inside knowledge into what makes Eddie tick and what doesn't make Eddie tick. They played him very well," Smith said.

"Our defence usually is more of a rolling defence and whoever is on him will pick him up.

"But I'm sure blokes like Taylor Duryea and Shaun Burgoyne might spend a fair bit of time on him.

"Let's hope he doesn't get into his pocket and start snapping goals."

While the Hawks' playing stocks are in good shape, with only Kaiden Brand (shoulder) sidelined, assistant coach Brendon Bolton looked worse for wear on Monday with a bandage on his head at training.

"Bolts was playing around with a bonfire and he went to pick up a big branch and he flicked one of the ashes straight onto his head and it stuck to him," Smith said.

"He's still got a grin on his face; I think Bolts and I have got a pretty similar personality."