HAWTHORN is 7-2 for the first time since 2013 and will make changes for the trip to Darwin next week, including leaving gun defender Jarman Impey in Melbourne for the impending arrival of his first child, while Melbourne will also be without an important player next week.

The Hawks managed key defender Tom Barrass this weekend after the recruit played the first eight games of the season, before taking care of business on Saturday by defeating Melbourne by 35 points at the MCG.

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Hawthorn has only played once before in the Northern Territory when they travelled to Darwin in 2022 and didn’t handle the conditions at TIO Stadium, losing to Gold Coast by 67 points while only kicking seven goals.

With that in mind, the Hawks have made the decision to travel on Monday to acclimatise to the heat and humidity. They will do a main session on Tuesday at TIO Stadium and a captain’s run on Wednesday before the first game of Sir Doug Nicholls Round is held next Thursday night.

Barrass will return against the Suns, Jack Scrimshaw is on track to return from a concussion, Cam Mackenzie is a chance to play after missing two games with a broken hand, while decisions are being made on Saturday night around who will be managed.

“We have started planning. We are going up on Monday, which we will do some training there. We went there a couple of years ago and we didn’t handle it as well as we thought as a club,” Mitchell said after the win over Melbourne.

“We get Tom Barrass back into the side. The one that we’ve made a decision on now is Jarman Impey won’t make that trip. His due date is fast approaching and being so far away it’s not a risk we want to take with someone like him. Family comes first.

“We want to make sure this is a really good week for him. He has known that he wasn’t going to be in this one for a while. Whether we do that with a couple of others we will make the assessment in the next 48 hours.”

Veteran key forward Jack Gunston continued his renaissance on Saturday, kicking three final quarter goals to lead Hawthorn to victory, leaving the MCG second in the Coleman Medal behind Ben King.

The 33-year-old, who could be managed for the trip to Darwin, wasn’t picked in the first two rounds, then returned as the sub, but since then has averaged 3.3 goals across seven goals to exit round nine with 23 goals on the board.

“Someone told me that he's second in the Coleman and wasn’t playing for us at the start of the year,” Mitchell said.

“The thing with Jack is the influence that he has off the field has always been the focus since he came back to the club. Him and Luke Breust and Sam Frost are almost like extra coaches, extra staff for us, they do an enormous job for us with bringing the youth along. Everything they do on-field is a complete bonus.

“The fact that he is having such a significant influence on the field is certainly not something we planned for from a list management point of view. We weren’t thinking that Jack Gunston would be our leading goal kicker. I’m absolutely rapt for him that he is doing that.”

Mitchell said the first three quarters were difficult to watch but he was confident the tide would eventually turn, which it did with Hawthorn registering 20 inside 50s to nine in the final quarter to record 6.5 when they needed it most.

“It was always going to be a difficult game; I was as frustrated as anyone at three-quarter-time, we just couldn’t get anything going and the game was a mess,” he said.

“I was looking at the centre bounces and it was Gawn, Petracca, Oliver and Pickett and I thought it was maybe a bit harder than I was thinking against the quality of talent that they had in there. We stuck with the same thing for a long time and thought eventually we would break the game open. It happened in the last quarter.”

With three-time All-Australian Clayton Oliver used surprisingly, but effectively, as a tagger on reigning Crimmins Medallist Jai Newcombe, Mitchell said free agent James Worpel stood up with 28 disposals, 14 contested possessions, 10 tackles and six clearances.

“The thing about Worps is it doesn’t matter how everyone else is playing, he just plays the same way. Sometimes when the rest of the team aren’t going well or not clicking, its Worps that’s the consistent player through that period,” he said.

“If you look at the early part of last year where we weren’t playing well at all and the midfield was getting well beaten, he was the one that was really standing up.

“I think at half-time, we were in front but only just and a lot of it was off the back of his good work. The rest of the team came along after that but he is the one that was the most consistent across the four quarters.”

Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin ruled Jack Viney out of next Sunday’s game against Brisbane at the Gabba after the veteran midfielder reported delayed concussion symptoms on Thursday, following the game against West Coast last weekend.

“It is an unusual one. He won’t play next week,” Goodwin said.

“He certainly had some delayed symptoms that he wasn’t quite sure about. He travelled back from Perth and just felt a bit tired, which is standard protocol after travelling back, but on Thursday he didn’t feel right at training.

“That was when the decision was made to have a SCAT and get some more information. He didn’t pass his test. He goes into the protocols at that point and he’ll miss next week as well. A bit of an unusual one from a concussion perspective, but you just don’t take any risk with this space.”