With no margin for error and everything on the line, coach Sam Mitchell insists Hawthorn are ready to take it up to Carlton and keep their season alive.
The Hawks sit four points outside the top eight after their two-point loss to GWS, with games against Carlton, Richmond and North Melbourne to come.
After fighting back from 0-5 to thrust themselves into finals contention, Hawthorn will be effectively out of the race if they lose at the MCG on Sunday.
"We've been playing for our season for five or six weeks really and we thought we'd maybe get lucky and have one loss up our sleeve," Mitchell said on Friday.
"And we've had that now, so there's no margin for error. So the boys know what's on the line this week.
"Coming into this season, a big part of our focus was to put ourselves in winnable positions and we've been able to do that pretty consistently.
"We've still had some blowout games against us. But we have been much more consistent in our application and performance and that's a big step in the right direction for what we want to become.
"We know that our best footy is in front of us and we've got an opportunity where we can make this season stay alive and that's as good as you can hope for at this time of year for us.
"I'm rapt that we're in this position, but potentially it can all come to nothing as soon as this weekend if we can't get the job done."
Mitchell opted not to recall Finn Maginness to tag Blues captain Patrick Cripps, with Cam Mackenzie replacing Josh Ward (omitted) in the only change.
But he was confident Will Day, who was limited by GWS tagger Toby Bedford, would respond if targeted by Carlton stopper Alex Cincotta.
"We'll have some contingencies for what happens with the tags," Mitchell said.
"But you just have to back your own system and your own players in in the first instance and see if we can handle it better than we did as a collective last week."
Mitchell said he had addressed the latest development in the ongoing Hawthorn racism saga.
The statement of claim from the Federal Court case, headlined by former Hawthorn star Cyril Rioli, was revealed via documents on Monday.
"We know what the nature of that story is and what's happened in the past," Mitchell said.
"So we address it, there's no elephant in the room, and sort of chat as we need to.
"But we're very focused on, for me, coaching the football club and for them, playing.
"So we've had a chat about it, but we know that our focus needs to be fair and square on the things that we can control which start obviously with Carlton this week."
