HAWTHORN is set to welcome back three premiership players for this week’s clash with Carlton, with Stephen Gilham, Brent Guerra and Michael Osborne all set to return to the side that defeated West Coast in Launceston last Saturday.

Hawks vice-captain Luke Hodge said the trio should all be ready to return from injury, while the extent of Clinton Young’s hamstring injury was not yet known.

“We get a few guys back this week – Gilham, Osborne and Guerra all look like they could back coming back in,” Hodge said.

“'Youngy' was a bit tight with his hammy, but they’ll reassess him this week and we’ll see how he goes. He pulled up a little bit tight, so I guess we’ll find out today or tomorrow.”

While Hodge admitted he was relieved the Hawks could manage their second win of the season against the Eagles, he said the game felt like it was in the balance right until the final siren.

“It was a pretty close game the whole way through. Especially in those conditions, it only takes a couple of entries into the forward line (to change the result),” he said.

“You drop off your man a bit and they can get a couple of sneaky goals, as it showed in the last quarter. It was never relaxed down there.”

The Hawks are up against Carlton this week, with the Blues confident after their win over the Bulldogs on Sunday. Hodge said he can see some similarities between the young Carlton side and the up-and-coming Hawthorn team of a couple of years ago.

“They’ve got a good bunch of fellas in there now with (Marc) Murphy, the likes of (Bryce) Gibbs and 'Juddy' in there now, and (Nick) Stevens,” he said.

“They’ve got a good bunch and ... get it down fast to (Brendan) Fevola and (Cameron) Cloke, who is playing deep. We’ll watch their tape this week. We’ve had a pretty good record against them but that is all forgotten this week; they’re a different team.”