HAWTHORN won’t be taking the Bulldogs lightly because of their ladder position when the two teams meet at Aurora Stadium on Saturday.

The Bulldogs currently sit in 15^th position on the AFL ladder with four wins and 11 losses, but that is of little importance to the ladder-leaders.

The Hawks have suffered just two losses this season – both to Geelong, and are in devastating form heading into Saturday’s game having defeated Port Adelaide by 45 points at AAMI Stadium last weekend.

Assistant Coach Luke Beveridge says the ladder positions of both sides means nothing when the two teams cross the white line at 1.45pm on Saturday.

He says the Hawks attack each game with the same intensity and vigour regardless of the opponent and that’s the expectation on Saturday.

Hawthorn fell 17 point behind Gold Coast in Round 9 this season but Beveridge says that wasn’t through a lack of commitment from the Hawks, but rather the pressure of Gold Coast.

There’s no complacency at Hawthorn.

“It’s important not to change your energy levels and intensity levels week to week, you need to come out and make an impact straight away and we try and do that regardless of the opponent,” Beveridge told hawthornfc.com.au

“Sometimes in those games (against lower ranked teams) when the scoreboard momentum fluctuates, you can’t put it down to us dropping off, you’ve sometimes got to credit the opposition whose pressure goes up or maybe the adjust tactically and you’ve got to expect that will happen.

“It’s just important we ride out those times in the game where the momentum is with the opposition and we’ve got to wrestle it back as quickly as possible.”

The ability to wrestle back momentum from teams is something the Hawks are constantly working on.

Coach Alastair Clarkson and his players have often spoken this season about the desire to keep improving and Beveridge says the ability to stop the opposition’s run on is part of that.

The Hawks were challenged in the second quarter of last week’s game against the Power, when the home side kicked six goals to get within a kick before half time.

Hawthorn responded, however, and silenced the passionate Port Adelaide crowd to boot four goals for the term including one on the half time siren.

A nine goal to two second half was an emphatic response from the Hawks to run away with a 45 point win.

Beveridge says the playing group is getting better at responding to shifts in momentum and the win over the Power was another step forward in the maturity of the group.

“The more we learn to do that (get momentum back) and the more capable we are as a group to do that, that’s when we’ll be at our best,” he said.

“At the moment, we think we’ve made inroads there but we’ve still got a way to go.

“If that’s a sign that we’re maturing a little bit as a team and we’re able to respond in a pretty emphatic manner like we did against Port Adelaide, then that may be a sign.

“You hope that week to week you are maturing as a team. Where we’ve evolved to is we are a lot more versatile and so we can adapt tactically, to certain situation better than in the past where we may have found it more challenging.

“Our players have been sensational in that they’ve been able to play a role that’s foreign to them or it’s their second preference, straight away when asked so that’s been great.”