HAWTHORN has learnt its lesson from last weekend’s scare against Gold Coast and won’t be taking Melbourne lightly when the two teams meet at the MCG on Sunday.

The Hawks were outplayed by Gold Coast in the opening half of last weekend’s Round 9 game at the MCG and trailed the expansion club by 17 points midway through the third quarter.

A six goal blitz in the second half of that quarter though and a five goal to four final term saw Hawthorn escape with a 26 point victory over the Suns.

Coach Alastair Clarkson cited a lack of endeavour for his team’s poor opening half and will be looking for a marked improvement in that area at the first bounce on Sunday.

Melbourne are 17^th on the AFL ladder, with only one win from its opening nine matches.

Assistant Coach Luke Beveridge says the players and coaches have learnt from its matches against Greater Western Sydney and Gold Coast in the past two weeks and won’t be suffering from any complacency on Sunday.

“We can’t look forward to the bye before we get the job done on Sunday,” he told hawthornfc.com.au

“It is a challenge to treat Melbourne like they are in the top four and make sure we don’t have any troughs in our performance levels.

“If we’ve learnt anything from the last two weeks, it’s that we can’t be complacent.”

In order to do that, the Hawks’ defensive coach said the side will be worried about “its own backyard” and concentrate on playing to the strengths that have netted it an 8-1 start to the season.

“The bottom line is you have to deal with your own backyard and hope that that’s going to be the thing that hold you in good stead and caters for anything they through at you,” he said.

“That’s our focus this week.

“We know that they will be hurting again after last week and if this is a week where we see some of the promise and the individuals play some of their better football and it’s one of their improved performances, we’ve got to be ready for that.”

The Demons will be without key forward Mitch Clark and co-captain Jack Grimes through injury, while forward Colin Sylvia will serve the final match of his three week ban this weekend.

It puts Mark Neeld’s side in a precarious position, boasting a number of talented youngsters still finding their way in the AFL.

They do, however, still have a number of experienced players to provide leadership to their young teammates.

Mark Jamar, James Frawley and Chris Dawes in particular are good players on their day and when firing, can lift their side to victory when ably assisted by their highly touted young teammates.

Beveridge says the Hawks are well aware of the threat posed by both in senior and inexperienced Demons and will be ready to tackle whichever Melbourne comes to play on Sunday.

“You know that Melbourne are going to try and deploy their own tactics to try and beat us and try and quell what our strengths are,” he said.

“They do have a number of established senior players but they’ve got a real core of inexperience as well that Neeld is trying to mould and hold the club in good stead going forward.

“You can only deal with what’s in front of you, but we’re definitely not going to be taking them lightly because we know the experienced guys they do have, if they step up and play their best footy and they get that support around them, they’ll be dangerous.

“The challenge will be there, there’s no doubt about it. We just need to make sure we’re ready for it in the mind and in the body and come out and play our best footy.”