HAWTHORN midfielder Sam Mitchell says he's glad he'll be able to give his body a break over this weekend as the Hawks rest up before the preliminary final.

Hawthorn earned a place in a preliminary final after defeating Collingwood in the first qualifying final at the weekend.

The Hawks will play the winner of this Friday night's match between Adelaide and Fremantle at AAMI Stadium.

Mitchell said the Hawks had endured a gruelling past three weeks, with tough encounters against Sydney Swans, West Coast and Collingwood.

"History says that you're in the box seat when you've had a week off in the finals," Mitchell said on SEN's Morning Glory program.

"Myself, personally, I've been a bit sore.

"We’ve had a pretty physical last few weeks. It (the break) is probably good timing for us."

Mitchell said he has no problem with the scheduling of Hawthorn's preliminary final at 5.15pm on the Saturday.

"It doesn't make too much difference to me," he said.

When asked what the Hawks had learned from last year's three-point loss to Collingwood in a preliminary final, Mitchell said: "What we learned a lot — not just from that game, but other games this year, including on the weekend against the Pies — you can’t keep really good sides down for 120 minutes.

"They’re going to have periods of dominance. You've got restrict their scores and then make sure you make the most of it when you have a period of dominance.

"This year we’ve been a little better at it.

"When we've had 15 or 20 minutes of dominance we’ve been able to, for the most part, put some scoreboard pressure on.

"Early in the game against Collingwood, they had a lot of inside 50s in a row and we were able to restrict their scoring ability.

"Then the scoring pressure doesn't come and you can continue your own way.

"I think that's important going into a prelim. Being able to stay composed is important."

On Wednesday morning Mitchell helped launch a new water refill station at G.E Reserve in Hawthorn as part of Yarra Valley Water's 'Choose Tap' program.

Mitchell is an ambassador for the program, which encourages the community to drink tap water as an important part of a healthy lifestyle, and as a cheaper and more environmentally friendly option than bottled drinks.