HAWTHORN kicked 31 goals on Saturday and conceded only five, but defender Josh Gibson says the Hawks are still yet to play a perfect game.

Gibson found several pleasing aspects from the club record 165-point thumping of Port Adelaide at the MCG, but said the third-placed Hawks wouldn't dwell on their big afternoon out.

"There's always room for improvement," the 27 year-old said from Hawthorn's Waverley Park headquarters on Monday morning.

"We're always striving for utopia, and I don't think we've had the perfect game ever, so there are still a lot of things coming out of the game that we'd like to improve.

"We've had a good season so far and winning form is good form.

"It was another win on the weekend but that goes into the kit bag now. It's done, and we'll move on to next week."

Exciting forwards Lance Franklin and Cyril Rioli hogged the headlines after the victory with their bags of eight and six goals respectively, but Gibson said the number of other contributors was just as important.

"It was good to see that we had an array of goal-kickers," the former Kangaroo said.

"I think that was the most pleasing thing: Buddy and Cyril were able to kick a bag each, but we still had 15 goal-scorers, so that shows that our structures are working."

Gibson also paid credit to the star pair for creating opportunities and giving goals off.

"As well as those two have played, their ability to bring their teammates into the game is making us a better team," he said.

The Hawks are sure to face a much sterner test on Friday night when they confront fourth-placed Carlton, a team they've sat side-by-side with on the ladder since round 10 but are yet to meet on the field this season.

"It's a big game this week," Gibson said.

"Carlton have been in fantastic form and they had a good win over there against Freo on the weekend, so we'll have to be at our best to try and get a victory.

"They've got a fantastic midfield … and they've got Walker down forward who has been awesome, so they're pretty complete all over the field, and it's going to be a good test for us."

A win against the Blues would see Hawthorn secure in the top four.

"To have that double chance is vital, but if you get too far ahead and start thinking about that, you can drop games and we'll be out of that third place just as fast," Gibson said.

"So it's the old week-to-week, and it's just focusing on our structures and things like that. Hopefully if we fulfil them, then the results will look after themselves."

Mark Macgugan writes for hawthornfc.com.au and covers Hawks news for afl.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @mmacgugan