While a 2020 finals appearance is all but mathematically ruled out for the Hawks, Coach Alastair Clarkson still sees the remaining five rounds of the home and away season as being full of opportunity and value.

“Given our ladder position doesn’t allow us to make finals now, there’s an opportunity to trial some things in the last four of five rounds in the season," Clarkson said in his pre-match press conference.

“Some of that’s to do with personnel, some of that’s to do with method."

Some of those personnel changes were on show last week, when the Hawks made six changes to its side set to take on Port Adelaide. Despite the loss, the young Hawks side put together one of the club's most promising performances of the season.

Despite these exciting signs, Clarkson admits it's a difficult climate for all clubs as they look to lay the foundations for future seasons.

“It’s really difficult to plan for the future at this point in time. We’re still as an industry uncertain of what our list sizes will be, we don’t know what the second tier competition is really going to look like with a whole heap of decision making around that.

“There’s not exact confirmation on what the whole structure of the (2021 AFL) season will be, and even the starting date for next year, so there’s a lot of things up in the air that are being juggled at the minute.

“Once some of those things land we’ll be in a much better position to determine what 2021 looks like for all the clubs."

Watch Clarkson's press conference below for all the Hawthorn updates ahead of tomorrow night's clash with the Bombers.