Six Hawks – skipper Luke Hodge, vice-captain Jordan Lewis, Jarryd Roughead, Isaac Smith, Shaun Burgoyne and ruckman Jonathon Ceglar, who has not played a senior match since round 19 – left for Perth on Wednesday.

The rest of the squad, including coach Alastair Clarkson but not injured forward Jack Gunston, will leave on Thursday, as they prepare to deal with a sellout crowd at Domain Stadium.

Lewis has revealed the Hawks were "intimidated" by a hostile Perth crowd a fortnight ago during their losing qualifying final against West Coast Eagles, but insists they have learnt from this.

It was a frank admission from a team that has rarely, if ever, been intimidated by anything on their way to back-to-back flags.

"I have got no doubt that playing over there two weeks ago in front of a really loud home crowd, that will hold us in good stead going over there this time," Lewis said.

"It's pretty vivid in our memories. We were probably intimidated a bit, to be honest, by the crowd, but I think we have learnt a lot of lessons from that game and, hopefully, we prepare ourselves a little differently for the crowd this time.

"We have played in big games a lot in recent years ... so it shouldn't have come as a shock, but we probably weren't ready for it and we were probably overawed by it a little bit.

"That was a really good lesson for us to learn. We didn't play our best football and the crowd was probably a key factor, but we'll go over there better prepared this time."

Gunston, battling a knee and ankle injury, had needed to prove he could change direction and accelerate, but was unable to persuade the Hawks he was ready to return.

That the mobile Ceglar has made the trip is intriguing. It indicates he may replace David Hale, who has struggled of late and was subbed off against Adelaide last weekend. There is speculation Hale will retire once the season is done.

Ceglar, dropped for last year's grand final, having played in the previous four matches, featured in the first 14 rounds this season but was axed when the Hawks opted to have a Ben McEvoy-Hale ruck combination.

He returned for a one-off appearance in round 19 against the Eagles, when he played in tandem with McEvoy at Domain Stadium.

The Hawks know they must handle Dockers Lachie Neale, David Mundy and Nat Fyfe – the latter two named as All-Australians – to enhance their hopes of victory. Fyfe, though, continues to nurse an injured leg and will play in pain.

Winning the contested ball looms as a key area of battle. The Dockers have emerged victorious in 88 per cent of matches when they have won the contested-ball count.

"History shows that if you either break even or win contested ball in any game, you put yourself in a really good position to win games and give your forwards opportunities to kick goals," Lewis said.

"That is, obviously, a key stat to winning or not, so we have to be at our best at that part of the game."

The Hawks may also need to find a way of negating the Dockers at stoppages. They are the No.1 side for clearance differential, averaging 7.4 more than opponents, through the dominance of Aaron Sandilands in the ruck and Fyfe and Mundy at ground level.

McEvoy is not expected to beat Sandilands, because the latter averages 43.5 hitouts per game, compared with the Hawk's 19.9.

However, when it comes to hitouts to advantage, there is not a major gap: 30.8 per cent of Sandilands' knocks are to advantage, while McEvoy has 27.4 per cent.

"We will be going out there trying to play hard, tough footy and finals are won like that," Lewis said.