HAWTHORN premiership star Jack Gunston will need to prove his fitness before being named to face Brisbane on Sunday as the Hawks gear up for an unusual season-opener.

Gunston had ankle surgery in December before the Hawks' Christmas break and did not feature in the Marsh Community Series.

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However, he has been named on the club's extended interchange for this weekend's clash with the Lions at the MCG.

Coach Alastair Clarkson said the three-time flag-winning forward and member of the 2018 Virgin Australia All Australian side still needed to tick off some training before being ready to play. 

"We're hoping he will [play]. He's got a session he needs to get through today and then tomorrow morning," he said on Friday.

"At this stage we're hoping he'll be available to play, but he's had ankle surgery over the summer and he's come on pretty late.

"But with his training form, and he played an internal trial for us last week, and he was able to get through that in flying colours so we hope that as long as he gets through the training session today he'll be OK."

Brisbane has had the recent wood over Hawthorn, beating the Hawks in the past four meetings the clubs have had and in four of five matches since Chris Fagan, formerly the Hawks' football manager, took over as Lions coach.

It will be a different looking Hawthorn line-up this week, however, with recruits Jon Patton and Sam Frost making their first appearances in the brown and gold, while Brownlow medallist Tom Mitchell returns for his first game since breaking his leg last year.

Ben McEvoy will also assume a place in Hawthorn's defence as the Hawks implement their tactic of trying the ruckman as a backman.

"We trialled that towards the end of last year and part of it was to give more responsibility to Jon Ceglar in the ruck as well," he said.

"It's a double-edge sword there and we'll see how it unfolds throughout the year. We still expect McEvoy to play some time in the ruck through the course of the year but by and large we want to try to give Ceglar some more responsibility in that space."

Clarkson was reluctant to discuss the senior coaches' pledge to take a 20 per cent pay cut as the damage of the coronavirus ripples through the competition, which was revealed by AFL.com.au on Thursday.

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However the four-time premiership coach watched Thursday night's clash between Richmond and Carlton at an empty MCG and said it reminded him of his days playing for North Melbourne's reserves side during his career. 

"We used to play a lot of Friday night games and we'd get to the MCG and play our games in a hollow stadium from about 4.30pm to about 6.30 or 7pm at night before the crowd started to drift in from work and were more interested in the senior game," he said.

"The echo of voices around the vast MCG stadium – it was very similar to that last night. For me it was about taking back to yesteryear, but for our players it's going to be a very, very different and unique experience. 

"We're prepared. We're ready to play a game of footy and our boys have been training for a long period of time. We've been guided by the medicos and the Government and the AFL in terms of all the considerations around whether we play or not. We'll continue to be guided by them."