DESPITE Essendon having its struggles this season, Alastair Clarkson says the Hawks expect a good showing from the Bombers on Friday night.

Clarkson said the Hawks have to ensure they are ready for whatever Essendon produce tomorrow night under the roof at Etihad Stadium.

“We’ve got to prepare for Essendon’s best – they’ve been a bit up and down and inconsistent with a younger type of side, but whenever we come up against an opposition we always prepare for their best footy,” he said at the Ricoh Centre on Thursday morning.

“Some of their footy in patches throughout the course of the year has been really good and that’s what we’ve got to prepare for, as well as concentrate on some of the methods that we want to put into our game that we’ve been a little bit up and down in consistency-wise.”

“We’re really focused on the strengths Essendon can bring and what we can do to make it tough for the Bombers’ side.”

The Hawthorn coach said there was no whiff of complacency this week playing the bottom-of-the-ladder Bombers, saying the players’ focus was solely on the result and performance.

“We’ve got more important things within our own club to try and get right – a lot of players are trying to establish themselves in the side and other guys coming back from injury who are trying to get their seasons up and going,” Clarkson said.

“So we’ve got some things internally we concern ourselves with rather than anything to do with the opposition or the stage of the season.”

Clarkson was hesitant when asked about a mid-season ‘stocktake’ of where the Hawks are positioned after 11 games, saying the club’s focus was on the game to come tomorrow night.

“I don’t really want to focus on the first half of the year to be fair, it’s more about this week – it’s not about getting to the middle of the year and saying ‘how are you going?’,” he said.

“There’s a tough game every week and our focus is really just on Essendon this week, trying to get four points and move onto the next week.”

“It’s really week-by-week for coaches and we’ve gone on record as saying for the last four or five years our goal is to finish top four and just add the wins up at the end of the year – we’ve won eight games so far, and if we can replicate that in the second half of the year, we’re a really good chance to finish top four.”