HAWTHORN captain Sam Mitchell acknowledges his team is still "pretty fortunate" to remain in the hunt for this year's finals.
The Hawks will claim eighth spot on the ladder if they overcome arch-rival Essendon at the MCG this Saturday.
"It is not often you get a chance with possibly 10 wins to get a spot in the finals, but we'll take it," Mitchell said from Waverley Park on Monday.
"Over the last two or three weeks we haven't thought about it (finals). We've just tried to focus on week-after-week and finally we got a win on the board on the weekend.
"This week we're just going to be trying to beat Essendon and whatever happens after that is going to happen.
"We need a win this week otherwise all of the talk is for nothing."
Mitchell said regardless of Hawthorn's injury-ravaged season, mixed with indifferent form, the Hawks are still desperate to play finals.
He added it would be great exposure for youngsters such as Beau Muston, Ryan Schoenmakers, Beau Dowler, Max Bailey, Josh Kennedy, Shane Savage, Liam Shiels and Riley Milne, who have entered the side in recent times.
"Finals footy is what we play for," Mitchell said.
"Some of our guys who have played one, two, three or four games – if they get the opportunity to play in a finals series, it'll be exciting for them. A final is probably worth five to eight games of experience.
"If we can get in there … you never know how far we can go. If we can get them to play in a finals series, it's going to be pretty exciting for some of our kids."
Despite the September push, Mitchell is adamant the Hawks still have plenty of room for improvement.
He believes a sharp increase in form is needed against the Dons; a clash he anticipates will be a physical encounter.
"We're probably still not playing as well as we would've liked," Mitchell said.
"The benchmark of what we know we're capable of is fairly high and we're probably not playing up to that level at the moment.
"We're working pretty hard on the track and we're trying to get the best out of ourselves every week, every training session, every meeting of every day … and we're on the right track."
