HAWTHORN coach Alastair Clarkson says despite a 12-2 record his side has limped to the split round and will welcome an opportunity to freshen up as the countdown to September begins in earnest.

After watching the Hawks take three quarters to break the shackles of a tenacious West Coast before claiming a 57-point win, Clarkson said a week’s break was just what the doctor ordered.

“If we’d asked for a 10-goal win at the start of the game we would certainly have taken it,” he said.

“We knew they were going to be a bit more spirited than they were last week because they would have been really disappointed with their effort at home against the Cats.”

With Brad Sewell, Chance Bateman and Simon Taylor already out of the side the Hawks lost Jordan Lewis in the second quarter to a thigh injury, and played parts of the second half without Shane Crawford (knee) and Luke Hodge (calf). Hodge returned late in the game to kick two goals on route to three for the game, while Crawford, in his first game back, amassed 24 possessions off a wing.

“Over the course of the last five weeks we’ve had Bateman out of the side, Sewell out of the side, Crawford hasn’t played much footy, (Ben) McGlynn hasn’t played much, (Tim) Clarke missed last week - a lot of our premier runners in the game have been missing a lot of footy,” he said.

“To show the type of spirit we did in the last quarter to run away with the victory was a real credit to the group,” he said.

Clarkson expects Hodge to be available to for the side’s round 15 blockbuster against the inform Sydney, while Crawford and Lewis would both be assessed this week.

Bateman, Taylor and Sewell are expected to come back into the side to tackle the Swans. 

Clarkson praised the effort of key forward Jarryd Roughead, who emerged from the shadow of goal kicking partner Lance Franklin to kick six goals. The pair kicked 11 between them to prove the difference between the two sides.

Roughead had four on the board before half time and added two more in the last term as the Hawks hit top gear.

“I thought he was first class tonight,” Clarkson said of Roughead.

“He was a really imposing presence down there both in the air and with his ground level pressure on the opposition. He’s just growing and growing in confidence and made a really important contribution to our forward half.”