HAWTHORN assistant coach Damien Hardwick has brushed off suggestions Hawthorn went out of their way to stop Brendan Fevola kicking his 100th goal on Saturday night.
Hawthorn star Buddy Franklin reached the 100-goal milestone during the round-22 clash, but Fevola's seven second-half majors left him stranded on 99 goals for the season.
Hawthorn received criticism for dropping Jarryd Roughead into the space in front of Fevola for a brief period late in the game but Hardwick said the Hawks did nothing out of the ordinary to deny the Carlton spearhead his milestone goal.
"Our defenders defended; that's what they're there to do, and ... we make no bones about it," Hardwick said on Monday.
"It's a ruthless game, AFL, and that's the way we play. It was only for two possessions that Roughead went back ... in all honesty, Buddy's played with two blokes on him the whole year."
Hardwick said the Hawthorn spearhead had come through relatively unscathed from his big night out, which included a mass pitch invasion when he reached the ton late in the first term.
"I think he's good – it's the first time I've ever seen him nervous before a game," Hardwick said.
"He came through really well - he was a bit scratchy in the first quarter, but after that, he was fine.
"To be the first ever Aboriginal player to kick one hundred goals is a tremendous achievement but we're looking for bigger and better things come September."
Hardwick admitted that it was a relief that Buddy had achieved the milestone in the home-and-away season to avoid any unwanted distractions during the finals.
"By our own admission we probably looked to go to Buddy a little too much in the weeks previous so now, from our point of view, we can look to share the goals around," he said.
"As you could see at the weekend we had nine goal kickers and four or five players that kicked three goals or more. So from our point of view it was a real even spread of goal kickers and something we can take into the finals."
As for changes to personnel for this Friday night's big clash against the Bulldogs, Hardwick said the club will have the luxury of choosing from a healthy squad.
"It's a good situation to be in. We've got (Shane) Crawford who'll come back in and Simon Taylor is available, as is Cameron Stokes, so it's a good place to be in, regarding our selection this week.
"We haven't been in that situation all year so it will be an interesting Tuesday and Thursday meeting for us at the selection table."
Despite resting defender Campbell Brown due to a foot complaint in the closing stages of the victory over Carlton, Hardwick insisted that he would be available this weekend.
"He's got a bruised foot so he'll definitely have a lighter week (at training)… he'll definitely play on Friday."
Far from being glad that it's the Saints that must match up against the all-conquering Cats in week one of the finals, Hardwick declared that his club aren't scared of anyone.
"We don't really fear anyone. We're looking forward to the challenge. We've set ourselves up for a fantastic finals series and given ourselves a double chance so we're looking forward to having a fair dinkum crack at it."
As for St Kilda's rampaging victory over Essendon to secure fourth spot, the former Bomber said he wasn't surprised at the margin of victory considering the Dons' inexperience.
"I looked at Essendon's side and jeez, they were young. They had probably five or six kids that had just started shaving. The future's bright for Essendon but I think St Kilda had everything to play for and played accordingly."
