HAWTHORN captain Sam Mitchell said club veteran Shane Crawford is doing his best to emphasise the importance of taking opportunities, particularly to the younger Hawks, ahead of Saturday’s preliminary final against St Kilda.

“Crawf’s been in the system for 17 years and he is always the one that says; ‘I’ve never been in a position as good as this so don’t think it’s going to happen every year, this is our one opportunity, we might never be back in this position again’,” Mitchell said on Tuesday.

“So we’re acutely aware that this is a great opportunity for us. We finished top four, we’ve had a week off in September to freshen up and get as many blokes right as possible.”

Having lost six of the past seven matches against the Saints, Mitchell was keen to express that previous results won’t be a factor in this weekend’s clash.

The last time the sides met was in round 16 when the Saints were victorious by 30 points.

"It was reasonably different sides for both of us," the star midfielder said.

"They are in much better form now than they were then and we'd like to think that we are too.

“We were in front by four or five goals at half-time and probably took our foot off the pedal a little bit and it showed that if we don't come with our A-game against a side as good as the Saints we're not good enough to beat them."

As far as Mitchell was concerned, it’s not only the form of both sides that has changed, but tactics have also changed in the last few years.

"The last three games (against St Kilda), you probably have a little bit of a look," he said.

"Their game style's changed significantly, they've had a new coach for most of that time, and we probably don't look any further back than the one game we had this year."

Despite suggestions the Hawks’ back line is a potential weakness, Mitchell defended the backs, and instead putting the onus on the engine room of the team.

“I think our defence is probably ranked third or fourth in the competition so I wouldn’t say it’s our weak link,” he said.

“We’ve had the least inside 50s for the whole season so we’ve probably had a full ground defensive concept.

“The last game of the year Fev (Brendan Fevola) kicked seven but it’s not Croady’s (Trent Croad’s) fault -  there’s nothing he could have done about probably five or six of them.

“It’s all lack of midfield pressure… if the midfield put enough pressure on the opposition we’re going to give our backs every chance to give us the rebound we need to probably beat the Sainters.”

As for the opposition’s main threat, Mitchell was adamant about St Kilda’s dangerman.

“You’ve got to have a look at Nick Riewoldt and have a look at how he’s been, particularly over the last six to eight weeks, which correlates with their form,” he said.

“So clearly we’ve got to put a little bit of work into what we’re going to do about him and they’ve got some other dangerous forwards in (Stephen) Milne and (Justin) Koschitzke as well.”

The 25-year-old also maintained the players have been largely unaffected by the growing hype around the club’s tilt at a premiership.

“We probably live in a little bit of a cocoon, we probably don’t realise how big it is… it’s pretty much the same routine for us.”