HAWTHORN Assistant Coach Adam Simpson says Hawthorn’s recent history of domination over Collingwood means nothing once the two teams cross the white line on Friday night at the MCG.

The Hawks have won eight of their past 11 clashes against the Magpies including victories in their past four meetings by an average of 40.5 points.

But Simpson, one of Senior Coach Alastair Clarkson’s right-hand men says while it is nice to have defeated Collingwood on past meetings, those results mean little once tonight’s blockbuster is underway.

Part of the logic behind that is the fact that a personnel has changed for both sides and for Collingwood, their style has changed according to Simpson since the Round 3 clash.

He says it’s hard to even look at three or four weeks ago, given the Pies were beaten by Gold Coast four weeks ago and defeated the reigning premiers last weekend.

“The history is good, but really you can’t use much of it, even from three or four weeks ago because the game changes so much,” he told hawthornfc.com.au

“Every game is different, it’s good to have a little bit of an advantage through recent form but really, the style of play Collingwood were playing in Round 3 is different than what they’re playing now.

“They’ve got different personnel, but that’s the same with us as well.

“We’re happy with the recent form but it doesn’t make much of a difference.”

The Hawks will need to stop gun Collingwood forward Travis Cloke if they’re to win tonight, and Simpson is confident the team has the defensive set up to counter Collingwood’s dangerous forward.

He admits though, also having defender turned forward Ben Reid to contend with makes the Pies a different prospect than in the past, but lauds the defensive work of coach Luke Beveridge and the backline players in their preparation for big challenges.

“No doubt when you have support in your forward line and you’re not always the number one player it does benefit someone like Travis (Cloke),” he said of Reid’s inclusion to the Collingwood forward line.

“Another target for Collingwood up there for Cloke just adds another element to their dynamics.

“(But) we’ve got a style that we stick to with our defenders, Luke Beveridge (defensive coach) has done a terrific job to prepare his players for every week and this is just like every week in terms of strengths and weaknesses.

“Cloke is obviously a threatening player, but I don’t think our philosophy will change too much in how we go about it.”

Hawks forward Jarryd Roughead identified pressure in the midfield as the key to limiting Cloke’s influence, given the clean and precise ball use Collingwood are capable of going forward.

The Pies are ranked second in the AFL for marks taken inside 50 (behind Hawthorn), with an average of 14.2 per game and Cloke is usually the target of those disposals.

Simpson says pressure across the midfield will definitely be a focus for the Hawks, though that’s not different to games against any other opposition.

“It’s going to be a really tight, contested game and whoever is hard for longer always comes out and wins those types of games,” he said.

“You’re not going to get a free flowing game because when they (Collingwood) do get that, they use the ball quite well.

“Cloke just needs to ball to his advantage really because he’s so strong and powerful.

“It’s a collective focus to try and disrupt the clean footy coming into the forward line, but that has been a focus for us every week.

“Hopefully the stuff we’ve done this year and over the last few years will hold us in good stead for these big games.”

The Hawks have battled indifferent form in the last two weeks, having lost to Richmond in Round 19 and a lacklustre performance against St Kilda last weekend.

While many believe the Hawks are trying to peak at the right time, Simpson says the team just wants to play well each week.

“It was really disappointing against the Tigers, we rebounded reasonably well on the weekend but we still think there’s some work to do in getting that 90-100 per cent capacity that we’re capable of,” he said.

“A lot of people say you’re building up to finals or trying to peak at the right time but we like to play well every week and it’s not as if we’ve come out to slowly build up to the climactic point of the season.

“We’ve been trying to play better than we have been, but it is getting serious now.”