HAWTHORN’s Paul Puopolo is arguably in career-best form, but the small forward says he’s simply focusing on his week-to-week role.

In the absence of fellow forward Jarryd Roughead and Ryan Schoenmakers, Puopolo has been one of a handful of Hawks to step up close to goal.

The 28-year-old has kicked 25 goals in 13 matches – and is just five majors shy of beating his career-best season tally of 29, which he achieved last year.

“(It’s) probably more the fact I’m kicking a few more goals,” Puopolo said, when asked if he was in career -best form.

“I’m still working on my pressure.

“That’s still number one for me, coming in week-in-week out putting that pressure on the opposition is my role in the side.

“I’m happy to do that each week and if I pop up and kick a couple of goals it’s a bit of a bonus.”

Out of Hawthorn’s regular goalkickers, Puopolo ranks second for conversion in 2016 at 71.4 per cent accuracy, behind only Cyril Rioli (74.3 per cent).

He’s earning a reputation as the “ice-man” after converting match-winning goals against Adelaide and North Melbourne.

Puopolo said the win against the Kangaroos on the weekend was a real confidence-booster for the team.

“A lot of the guys felt pretty sore after the game. It was one of those games where you ran really hard and it was really contested,” he said.

“To get a win like that, it’s really important come finals time to have those kind of wins, it builds confidence in the squad that you can win close games.”

Puopolo has seen first-hand the development of the Hawks’ younger brigade this season – including forwards James Sicily and Tim O’Brien – and said while the Hawks currently sit inside the top four, he can still see the side improving ahead of September.

“We’re scraping in the wins at the moment, we’re not really dominating the footy like we want to,” he said.

“We’ve still got plenty of time to play our best footy, but we need to get a little bit of a move on now. There’s times where we can still keep improving, so for us that’s a bonus.”