POWER Hawthorn forward Jarryd Roughead believes the key to stopping Collingwood and its supply to Travis Cloke is midfield pressure.

Cloke has kicked 11 goals in his past two matches against the Hawks – the Round 3 clash earlier this year and last year’s Qualifying Final, both matches the Hawks won in convincing fashion.

The Collingwood forward undoubtedly has a good record against the Hawks in recent times and in order to restrict his influence, Roughead believes comes down to the team’s ability to pressure the Collingwood midfield and limit the precision and delivery into Cloke.

He has kicked 27 goals in 15 matches against the Hawks, though his recent record of five, six and multiple three goal hauls has him in good shape heading into Friday night’s blockbuster.

This time around though, Cloke will be facing Hawthorn full back Brian Lake, the player the Hawks recruited specifically to handle the competition’s best forwards.

Friday night will be Lake’s first opportunity to play on Cloke as a Hawk, with Ryan Schoenmakers playing on the Magpie in the Round 3 clash.

Interestingly, Cloke has kicked the least amount of goals against Lake’s former club, Western Bulldogs in his 192-game career.

He has kicked just 13 goals in nine matches against the Bulldogs – which includes a five-goal haul against them this season.

That means, in Lake’s time at the Bulldogs, Cloke averaged only a goal a game.

Roughead says while the key lies in the pressure across the midfield, the Hawks have full confidence in Lake and fellow defender Josh Gibson to get the job done against the Pies star.

“It starts with the pressure in the midfield,” he told hawthornfc.com.au

“If it comes out of there easily and gets to Cloke lace out, then he’s obviously going to do some damage.

“We’ve got some great defenders though; it’s half the reason why we got ‘Lakey’ across, to play on those big gorilla forwards.

“If we’ve got enough pressure on the ball then the defence will take care of itself down there.”

Collingwood’s form heading into Friday night’s clash is impeccable, having beaten Essendon and reigning premiers Sydney in convincing fashion in the past two weeks.

Roughead believes their form improvement and ability to beat some of the top sides in the competition comes down to the inclusion of two gun midfielders – Dayne Beams and Luke Ball.

The Collingwood pair missed large chunks of the season through injury, but have returned in the past month to strengthen Collingwood’s dynamic midfield that already boasts Dane Swan and Scott Pendlebury.

“Definitely getting some of their A-grade midfielders back has improved them,” Roughead said.

“(Luke) Ball and (Dayne) Beams coming back in in some good form allows probably all four of them to be so potent with Swan and Pendlebury.

“The consistency of those four especially has given them a boost but also their pressure across the ground has been first class.

“To beat Essendon and Sydney in two weeks is pretty impressive.”

The Hawks forward believes the inclusion of Beams has had the most impact and will again on Friday night.

Beams has averaged 31 disposals in his four matches this season, an incredible effort according to Roughead given he missed 15 weeks with a quad injury.

But with Hawthorn having won eight of its past 11 matches against the Pies, Roughead knows how dangerous his side’s midfield can be against Collingwood.

In particular, Sam Mitchell plays well against Collingwood, averaging 27.67 disposals in 18 matches and Captain Luke Hodge also enjoys playing them, averaging 26.23 disposals in 13 games.

So Roughead knows whoever wins the midfield battle will probably win the game.

“To miss 16 weeks and come in and have those numbers already, it’s pretty impressive stuff (from Beams),” he said.

“We’ve got a pretty good midfield too and I’d like to think some of our boys in there in ‘Mitch’ and ‘Lewie’ and ‘Sewelly’ match-up well against them and have in the past.

“No doubt it’ll be another great game and hopefully we end up the ones on top.”