HAWTHORN coach Alastair Clarkson says his side has put last week’s loss to the Sydney behind them as they prepare to take on the Saints at the MCG on Saturday night.

The Hawks were disappointed with their effort in the second half against the Swans in Tasmania, but Clarkson says his players are determined to make amends.

“We’re terribly disappointed with our second half against Sydney, we put ourselves in a winning position at half time and then faded dreadfully, which was so unlike us,” Clarkson said at the Ricoh Centre on Friday.

“We’ve scrutinised it a little bit, but basically you move on because you haven’t got time to dwell.

“We’ve got an important opponent we’ve got to prepare ourselves for this week in St Kilda and we’ll be doing our upmost to get the four points.”

Despite having lost three of its opening five matches, the Hawthorn coach is upbeat about his side’s chances in season 2012.

Part of that belief stems from the Club’s competitive nature - a feature of Hawthorn’s game throughout its tough opening to the home-and-away season and, the opportunity to change its fortunes quickly.

“We’ve been really competitive in the first four games of the season, and a couple of those results didn’t go the way that we would have liked,” Clarkson said.

“(But) our competitiveness in four and a half games of footy this year has been outstanding.

“The great beauty of our game is you get a crack at it the following week and all our energies will be focused against another good opponent this week.”

For the first time this season, Hawthorn was comprehensively beaten in the contested footy, tackles and clearances in the second half against the Swans, something that the players are determined to rectify this week.

“Those things happen, it’s important though that you understand and have complete faith and belief that that’s not our normal performance and we’ll hopefully rectify that this week against the Saints,” Clarkson said.

“We’re a competent enough side to be able to win games of footy and we’ve got full belief in our players that we’ll be able to get ourselves there in the long run.”

The Saints pose another big challenge for the Hawks, but while admiring their improvement, Clarkson says he’s more focused on how his side is going to bounce back.

“It’s more about us this week, we need to get some of our processes in place and adhered to well and if we can do that, then we give ourselves a chance,” he said.

“The most significant part of that is contested footy and winning the hunt - it doesn’t guarantee us victory but it gives us a great chance of being in the game and then who knows what will happen from there.

Josh Gibson will miss Saturday night’s clash with an ankle injury, but Clarkson revealed that the defender could return for the battle with Melbourne next Friday night.

“He’s as professional a player as we’ve got in terms of trying to rehab himself and get himself right for a game and he doesn’t miss many games of footy because of that,” he said.

“He just wasn’t quite right this week and hopefully he’ll be right for next week.”

Kate Salemme is a member of Hawthorn Football Club’s Digital media team reporting exclusively for hawthornfc.com.au from the Ricoh Centre.