IT’S a strange feeling, says Taylor Duryea.

Hawthorn did not expect to be on top of the ladder heading into their bye at the end of Round 14, but it’s a brilliant place to be according to the dual premiership defender.

“You can’t really ask for a better position to be in,” Duryea said.

“Obviously we haven’t played our best football, it’s strange to think that we are on top of the ladder going into the bye and we think we’ve got a lot of upside.

“We’ll rest up and we’re optimistic about the second part of the year.”

The Hawks have dropped just three games in 2016 – to fellow top-four contenders Geelong, Sydney and GWS Giants – but have beaten four other finals contenders in 2015 runner-up West Coast Eagles, North Melbourne, Adelaide and Western Bulldogs.

Three of those wins have been finals-like contests – decided by less than two goals.

But while the Hawks find themselves in a good position ahead of the run home, Duryea says there is still room to improve.

He believes being able to get games into young players – including the likes of James Sicily, Tim O’Brien, Daniel Howe, Kaiden Brand and Kade Stewart – will be important as the Hawks set their sights on competing again at the business end of the year.

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“It’s probably just polish really,” Duryea said.

“We’d like to be able to score a little bit more and be a bit more efficient.

“We’ve blooded a lot of young guys this year, and it’s really a matter of getting the experience into them, you can’t do that without playing games.

“The cohesion needed to win finals is starting to build and for those young guys, six, seven more games under their belt, we’ll be right.”