COLLINGWOOD captain Scott Pendlebury says it would be only natural for Hawthorn to look ahead to finals and ease up slightly when the teams meet on Friday night.
 
The Magpies will be desperate to keep their season alive when they meet the Hawks at the MCG, with the club needing a win – and Richmond to lose to the Sydney Swans – to reach finals for a ninth straight season.
 
Hawthorn is already assured of finishing in the top three and a likely week one match-up against Geelong awaits, meaning it has little riding on the round 23 encounter.
 
Pendlebury was part of the round 24, 96-point shellacking at the hands of Geelong in 2011 and admits his side did not approach that game in the right manner.
 
The Magpies went on to lose to the Cats by 38 points in that year's Grand Final.
 
"After that game there wasn't a real feeling of disappointment, it was like we'd just got one out the way," Pendlebury said at the Westpac Centre on Thursday.
 
"Looking back it probably wasn't the right way to approach that game."
 
Speaking from his own experience, Pendlebury said the Hawks might have a tendency to think about the following week's game.
 
"I can't speak for Hawthorn but they are tough games to play because you are projecting forward," Pendlebury said.
 
"The last thing anyone wants is to see a Hawthorn player go down tomorrow night and touch wood that doesn't happen.
 
"It is in your mind and you don't want that to happen and they're in a position now where they're locked in second or third regardless of what happens."
 
The Magpies have been decimated by injury for much of this season, and in particular in the past month. A total of 19 players are listed on the club's official injury list this week.
 
The hefty injury toll has meant opportunity for a number of the club's younger players and more are likely to be given their chance against the Hawks this week.
 
Pendlebury said the Magpies needed only to look to Hawthorn, who has dealt with its own injury crisis, and adopt Alastair Clarkson's 'one soldier goes down, you replace them with another soldier' philosophy.
 
"Once the new guys get a taste for senior football, they're not going to want to hand their jumper back," he said.

"We've had great role models in the side we're playing this week – Hawthorn have lost a lot of players throughout the year – and they've just replaced them really well."