IT WAS portrayed as a warning to opposition teams after Hawthorn’s 95 point win over Melbourne when Coach, Alastair Clarkson declared the Hawks have improvement left despite being 9-1 after 10 rounds.

In his post-match press conference, Clarkson spoke about both improvements in match-play and in personnel.

Arguably missing from its best 22 against the Demons were Cyril Rioli, Max Bailey, Brendan Whitecross, Jack Gunston and Xavier Ellis – and that’s ignoring injured pair Matt Suckling and Ryan Schoenmakers who won’t return this season.

The team has won nine straight, but has had lapses in each of its games.

It was outplayed against Collingwood in the first half in Round 3 and struggled at times with the defence of Fremantle in Round 4.

The Hawks were nowhere near their best in Round 5 when it beat the Kangaroos by three points and completely outplayed by the Crows in the third quarter in Round 6.

The Swans were excellent in the final quarter of the Grand Final re-match in Round 7, while the 83 point win over Greater Western Sydney felt like that margin didn’t truly reflect the closeness of the match after quarter time.

Were the Suns that good or the Hawks sloppy? Hawthorn trailed by 17 points midway through the third term in Round 9, headed for a calamitous defeat at the hands of the expansion club.

Then, even the Demons outscored it four goals to two in the third quarter last Sunday despite trailing by a big margin at half time.

The Hawks haven’t played four quarters of football this year. But their best is that good that so far, it hasn’t mattered.

“We still think there's some improvement in terms of the way that we play,” Clarkson said after defeating Melbourne on Sunday.

"We've just been a little bit unsettled the last three or four weeks just with some changes to our side.”

Wingman Isaac Smith floated the same notion – saying the Hawks were yet to put in a solid four quarter effort after defeating Gold Coast by 26 points two weeks ago.

“We've got to come out and play four quarters of footy," he said.

"We probably haven't done that yet this year.

"I reckon in pretty much every week we've let ourselves down with a patch somewhere within the game."

There’s no doubt the Hawks are striving for perfection and utlity Shaun Burgoyne admits the Hawks have a lot to work on in the second half of the season.

“We’ve got a lot to work on,” he told hawthornfc.com.au

“Every win is a good win, we’ve set ourselves up pretty well.

“We’ve reviewed every game and seen where we can get better if we’re not happy with some areas.

“I don’t think we’ve played the perfect game yet, so we’ll continue to strive for that in the second half of the year.”