HAWTHORN’S 74-point NAB Cup win over Greater Western Sydney in Launceston on Saturday served as an equally important stepping stone for two clubs on very different football pathways.

Fancied for a tilt at the premiership flag come season’s end, the Hawks were heavily favoured to beat their inexperienced rivals in the pre-season clash, and were never headed at Aurora Stadium.

Despite winning without a host of regular stars, Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson was measured in his praise for the result, especially considering the Giants would also be taking positives away from the match and were far from embarrassed by the result.

“It’s not so much about who was missing for us, it was more about getting game time into the players who did play for us today,” Clarkson said.

“At this stage of the year you’re not as interested in wins and losses as you are the game time.

“We were really pleased to keep the GWS side to a really low score. They hit the scoreboard with four goals for the day, so it’s really good defensive work for us.”

While the physically superior Hawks were able to keep the Giants at arm’s length throughout the match, the competition new boys were far from disgraced and never rolled over in spite of the mounting lead.

“They were pretty competitive,” Clarkson said.

“If you look at the stats, the clearances, free kicks ... they were in and under pretty well. Contested marks, they took a lot of marks. They possessed the ball and they’ll get better with every game they play.”

Whether the Giants have enough remaining pre-season matches to be fully prepared for round one was the real poser for GWS coach Kevin Sheedy.

“We probably need about another three of those sort of games to get the players just experienced,” the veteran coach said, praising the effort his young tyros produced throughout.

“Every time they got ahead we kept trying hard, and I was pretty impressed with that part of the game. Our endeavour to get back into the game by trying to contest the ball ... I think if we played another three of those games, that experience would be pretty handy.”

The Giants face cross-town rivals the Sydney Swans at ANZ Stadium in Round 1, and have a number of their more experienced players to slot into the line-up before they play for premiership points.

“I think the players welcome the games. They want to get out there and know what the deal is and how quick and tough and hard and all those sorts of things,” Sheedy said.

“Hawthorn are a damn good side, and they’ll probably nearly be in a Grand Final. I know they didn’t have their best side out there, but I think our players will learn a lot out of that game.”