HAWTHORN knows opposition teams have analysed their game over the pre-season and utility Shaun Burgoyne says that’s the reason behind the playing group’s positive and hard-working pre-season attitude.

When a team salutes and is crowned the premiers, it is common practice for opposition clubs to immediately dissect the game style that proved the best in the competition.

Heading into season 2014, it is Hawthorn’s game plan and style under the microscope.

But they shouldn’t expect to see the Hawthorn of 2013 play in 2014.

Coach Alastair Clarkson, the master tactician who constantly looks for ways to improve and innovate knows what made his team successful last year won’t necessarily translate into success this season.

Burgoyne says that is part of the reason behind the positive and hard-working attitude of the players over the summer.

“Every year you look at the guys that won the Grand Final and the teams who finished in the top four at the end of the year and pick the good things they’re doing to try and implement them yourselves,” he told hawthornfc.com.au

“For us, that’s probably one of the reasons why the guys came back and trained really hard this pre-season is because we know teams are going to come at us.

“We’re going to be fully aware and we’ll look to keep improving to be in the mix again this year.”

In preparation for the upcoming season, the Hawks for the first time headed overseas to train, heading to South Africa for an intense two-week camp.

It challenged the players both mentally and physically and pushed them to their limits, but Burgoyne says it provided the perfect foundation the Hawks to hopefully have another successful season.

“Pre-season has been pretty good so far, the boys came back in good knick and training hard over the pre-season,” he said.

“The trip to South Africa was really good and the boys enjoyed that but since we’ve been back at the start of January everyone has pretty much knuckled down to get ready for games.

“We got over there for 12 days and the boys trained extremely hard. The weather was quite warm so every day was hard work but everyone attacked it really well and with a great attitude.”

With a number of exciting youngsters impressing over the summer too, there will be no complacency at Hawthorn in 2014.

Veteran midfielder Sam Mitchell has already identified Mitch Hallahan, last year’s league VFL best and fairest (J. J. Liston Trophy) winner, Alex Woodward and Will Langford, son of Club great Chris as players to press for senior selection.

Burgoyne, meanwhile identified first-round draft pick Billy Hartung, rookie Derick Wanganeen and defender Angus Litherland as players to watch after impressing over the summer.

“There have been some new, younger guys training pretty hard,” he said. “Hartung is a fitness fanatic – he trains really hard, he’s up the front and it’s great to see him pushing hard to earn a spot,” he said.

“Guys like Derick Wanganeen, who has been on the list for a couple of years now is training really hard and so is Angus Litherland.

“(But) you could actually go through all the younger guys because they’re all training very hard. It’s exciting to see these younger guys come in and try to earn themselves a spot in the team.”

The 29 year old also named returning knee victims Matt Suckling and Ryan Schoenmakers and gun ruck recruit, Ben McEvoy as players ready to add another dimension to the side in 2014.

“The knee reconstruction guys are all pretty much back to full training and the boys get really excited when they’re out on the track and training hard – they’re impressing as well because they’ve had 12 months to work on their bodies and their strength and you can see just by looking at them, that they’ve spent that time in the gym getting stronger,” he said.

“Then there’s big Ben McEvoy who has come in and is training really hard.”

Overall, Burgoyne says the players are ready for the Club’s opening NAB Challenge against Brisbane at Etihad Stadium next Thursday night.

“The guys are really excited, especially the younger guys because playing games is a reward for the hard work they’ve done over the pre-season,” he said.

“It’ll be exciting for our fans to see some of the new faces out there as well.”