HAWTHORN Coach Alastair Clarkson is pleased his team is guaranteed a top four finish and the double chance come finals, but the focus remains on securing a home final in the first week of the 2013 finals series.

The Hawks currently sit a game clear of Geelong in top spot and six points clear of Sydney and Fremantle in third, but clinching a home final is not yet a certainty.

A win against North Melbourne would take the Hawks one step further in achieving their goal, and Clarkson and his team are aware of that.

“You work hard all year to finish as high as you can on the ladder,” he said at the Ricoh Centre on Friday.

“We’re really pleased that our work thus far has been able to secure us a top four position, but our work over the next two weeks is all going to be about trying to secure a top two position.

“We know it doesn’t guarantee you’ll play off in a Grand Final, but it makes it easier to find that path.”

Standing in their way is a dangerous North Melbourne side that has beaten top eight sides Geelong and Essendon in the past three weeks.

The Kangaroos are widely regarded as a top eight sides whose results haven’t gone their way, and Clarkson sees them no differently.

He says a sign of their talent is their percentage, currently 122.4 – the fifth best in the competition.

He is under no illusions about the side his Hawks will need to defeat to reach top two on Saturday at Etihad Stadium.

“We’ve got a fair regard of the way North go about it,” he said.

“I think you only need to look at their percentage, that’s usually a pretty good guide. The general public usually look at wins and losses, but for coaches, percentage is usually a really good guide to where a side is at.

“There is another stat out there about percentage of time in front and the Kangaroos are I think the fourth-best in the competition.

“They’re a really formidable opponent, they haven’t been able to finish off games as well as they’d like because they’ve lost some close ones but they’ve been in the contest for the bulk of their games and they’re a very good side.”

Clarkson knows his team will need to perform near its best, something it finally achieved against the Pies last Friday night after two indifferent weeks against Richmond and St Kilda previously.

He says Saturday’s clash is another opportunity for his players to build towards their best form for the finals series.

“Our form on Friday night against Collingwood was certainly much better than it was the week before against St Kilda, but we need to start building towards our best footy now,” he said.

“It’s hard, we’re going to be coming up against strong opponents during the last part of the year.

“Our task is going to get any easier, we come up against a really strong side in the Kangaroos, but we’d like to think our group is energised and looking forward to the finals.”

He hopes the injured Paul Puopolo, who won’t play on Saturday with calf soreness will miss just one week and be back for the Round 23 clash against the Swans.

“We’re hopeful it’ll just be a week or so, but we’ll just have to wait and see,” he said.

“He just hurt himself at training yesterday so hopefully it’s very minor and he’ll be ok to play next week.”