HAWTHORN faces a nervous wait to see if Josh Gibson will be available to stand St Kilda skipper Nick Riewoldt after the key defender was reported against Richmond.
Gibson appeared to make high contact with Reece Conca when attempting to spoil in a marking contest, with the Richmond midfielder hitting the deck hard and leaving the field dazed.
Carlton's Andrew Walker was cleared of any wrongdoing in round one after a similar incident involving Power forward Justin Westhoff but Gibson still has an anxious 24 hours ahead.
Should he fall foul of the Match Review Panel, Hawthorn is fortunate enough to have a ready replacement on hand.
Ryan Schoenmakers has spent the past four weeks playing in the VFL after successfully recovering from a knee reconstruction and Clarkson confirmed he was fit for senior football.
"He's getting better with each game that he plays and is feeling pretty comfortable." Clarkson said.
"He played OK for Box Hill yesterday in their win against Coburg so he's ready to play. So at a time we think it's right for him to come into our side, he's certainly available for selection now."
The Hawks' improved defence against the Tigers impressed Clarkson after they had came undone against Tom Hawkins and his Geelong counterparts on Easter Monday.
Reigning Norm Smith medallist Brian Lake was a welcome addition to the backline as Hawthorn held Richmond to just seven goals for the game.
Lake and Gibson did a solid job, containing tall Tigers Jack Riewoldt and Ben Griffiths to just two goals.
"[Lake] and Gibbo did a pretty good job for us down in the back end. At different stages they both had Riewoldt and Griffiths. They defended pretty stoutly for us but our defence right across the ground really helped those guys in the back end," he said.
"Last week our defence right across the ground just fell away a little bit, that was some of Geelong's good play but it was also some of our poor play on the defensive side of the ball last week.
"We knew we needed to correct some of those things this week, we were a little bit better in that regard. Lake and Gibson and Stratton in our back end are pretty important players to the structure of our side."
