HAWTHORN skipper Sam Mitchell believes the Hawks are comfortable with the heightened expectations placed on them ahead of the season proper, and will focus more on maintaining their competitiveness than what could happen in September.

With everyone talking up the side's chances – including club president Jeff Kennett, who on Friday night at the Hawks' season launch said the club can win the premiership – the players could mount a case for feeling pressured.

But Mitchell laughed off suggestions that the weight of expectation will affect his players this year, and said their own intentions are more important that outside perception.

“Jeff is an interesting character, he likes to say those things off the cuff,” he said.

“But internally we've got some expectations that we think we can play some pretty good footy, and if we can do that on a consistent enough basis we think we're going to be a very good side.

“We're probably yet to prove that we're able to do that against every team in the competition, which is what it's going to take to, as [Kennett] would like to say, win the flag.”

Mitchell said the Hawks don't have a “plan” to contend with such outside expectation and will be relying more on taking things on a week-to-week basis.

“I guess all we do is try and prepare the best we can for every game and we know that if we play our best footy, we're going to be competitive against every side,” he said. “If we don’t, and we have a little bit of a lax week, we're going to really struggle.”

He did concede the Hawks have reason to believe they're genuine contenders this year, based on the in-roads they made in 2007.

“This is probably the first year we've had that little bit more confidence that perhaps we can mix it with some of the top sides,” he said.

“In years gone by we've been really dominated by some other teams and not been able to play well against most of the really top sides. I think last year we proved to ourselves and the footy community that we're able to mix it with some of those top sides when we play our best footy.

“We remember the games where we played against very good sides and weren’t playing anywhere near our best. We got smashed, so I don’t think we’re ahead of ourselves at all.

“We still have to play very good footy if we're going to be competitive with some of the best sides.”