HAWTHORN coach Alastair Clarkson has defended his decision to rest eight players for the Hawks' round 24 clash against Gold Coast.

Lance Franklin, Luke Hodge, Cyril Rioli, Shaun Burgoyne, Brad Sewell, Grant Birchall, Jordan Lewis and Max Bailey will be freshened up for the finals and didn't make the trip to Queensland for Saturday afternoon's match at Metricon Stadium.

Hawthorn will take on Geelong in a qualifying final at the MCG next Friday, with Clarkson's decision to rest his star players also aimed at giving the Hawks greater flexibility throughout the finals series.

"It's a pretty unique set of circumstances this round 24," Clarkson said from Melbourne Airport on Friday.

"The fact that it was a six-day break gives us an opportunity to play even more of [the players we want to have a look at] which is really good for us and gives us great depth in terms of selection for our finals series.

"We made the decision early in the week about how we were going to structure up, but we've got 22 blokes who are running out and we think it's still a pretty good side.

"It's not the best side … but the 22 that are playing - it's not like there are a hell of a lot of first-year players or debutants. All those guys will feature at some point in time in our finals series if we need them.

"When we go to select our side against Geelong for the qualifying final we'll have about 30 players who have all played senior AFL footy in the last two weeks of the season and that's gold."

Ben Stratton, Paul Johnson, Sam Mitchell, Chance Bateman, Rick Ladson, Xavier Ellis, Kyle Cheney and Jordan Lisle were all included in the team to take on the Suns, who will finish their first AFL season in the bottom two on the ladder.

Clarkson took the extraordinary step of contacting opposition coach Guy McKenna to inform him of the wholesale changes to Hawthorn's team before the line-up was announced on Thursday.

The Hawks' coach was at pains to point out that the quality of players brought into the team meant the selection moves were by no means a show of disrespect to Gold Coast.

"Their response was that they'd do exactly the same if they were in our position," Clarkson said.

"I've known 'Bluey' [McKenna] for a long time and I've got a lot of regard for him as a player, coach and person. I just didn't want him to be sideswiped. He's got his side and how he wants to finish off the year - I just thought it was a courtesy.

"I just thought it might help them a little. And perhaps just soften the blow a little bit. I didn't want it to be such a big issue for the whole footy community in the latter part of the week. We'll get on with the game now."

Clarkson's selection approach echoes a similar strategy employed by Fremantle coach Mark Harvey last year when he chose to leave a host of stars behind when his team travelled to Launceston to take on the Hawks in round 21.

The move ultimately paid dividends, with Freo defeating Hawthorn by 30 points in an elimination final in Perth two weeks later.

Stratton faces a tough task in convincing the coach he has enough match fitness to retain his spot, but Clarkson was happy just to be able to give him the opportunity after he fought back from what appeared to be a season-ending knee injury in round three.

"He played the whole game against Port Melbourne in the VFL last week and we were really pleased with what he was able to do," he said.

"We're yet to decide who'll be our sub and whether Ben will come into play in that regard we'll just wait and see over the next 24 hours."

Clarkson's sole focus in resting his stars is a successful finals campaign, but he was also able to see the lighter side of his decision. Round 24 doubles as the Dream Team grand final and he acknowledged the mayhem he had caused.

"It's been interesting to go into a few cafés this morning with some of the sideways looks I'm getting because of Dream Team points and that sort of stuff," he said.

"That's created a bit of humour, but we're in this caper to try and win premierships and we think that this is our best preparation to try and get ourselves a result."