Heading into Sunday's grand-final rematch against the West Coast Eagles, the Hawks are without the injured Luke Hodge, Jarryd Roughead, Liam Shiels and Brad Hill, and managed only one good quarter in a five-goal loss to Geelong on Easter Monday.

The Hawks, having averaged 111.5 points last season, were restricted to 86 by the Cats, with Schoenmakers have only two disposals for the afternoon.

Without Roughead inside forward 50, Schoenmakers has has even more important to fill alongside Jack Gunston and the returning Jonathon Ceglar, who will fill the ruck-forward role once held by David Hale.

Schoenmakers was restricted by a knock he received against the Cats but the Hawks have urged him to be more forthright inside attacking 50.

"He got a knock early which was a little bit unfortunate. We thought he competed pretty well last week. He just didn't get a lot of the ball and didn't put any pressure on the Geelong side in terms of getting scoreboard shots which all forwards need to do at some point in time," Clarkson said on Saturday.

"They can't just be playing roles without hitting the scoreboard at some point in time. He would have been disappointed with his output over the game but he was a little bit sore with a knock he got early and it didn't help him with his movement and that's a big part of his game - being able to run hard. He has fully recovered from that now and, hopefully, he can play well for us on Sunday."

The Hawks had a light run in steady rain at Waverley on Saturday, and the conditions are likely to be greasy on Sunday when the Eagles attempt to go some way towards erasing their disappointing effort last October.

The Hawks dominated that day by regularly getting the ball over or through the Eagles' so-called web defence, and that's likely to again be an intriguing battle of tactics.

"One of the great strengths of the sides at the top end of the ladder is that they do play to a particular system and do it really well. West Coast have done that really well over the course of the last 18 months, in particular," Clarkson said.

"They have probably refined some things in their game over the summer but, by and large, the formula they used to be so successful throughout the course of last year will still be in play this year."

Through three-straight premierships, the Hawks have dealt with such issues as Clarkson's illness and injuries to Sam Mitchell and Josh Gibson which forced the pair to the sidelines for some time. Shiels could return in the next fortnight but Hodge and Roughead won't be back for longer.

"It's a big challenge. A lot of clubs have to go through it. It's a very, very volatile and brutal game. It's probably the most physically demanding game that is played in world sport," Clarkson said.

"You are going to have to overcome these hurdles from time to time. We have been able to overcome these challenges before - we are hoping we can at the present time as well.

"Right when you are in the middle of it all, it is very difficult and confronting, and you have to work out different ways of doing that.

"We have been okay at being able to do it in the past. Time will tell whether we can get through this little patch as well as we have in the past."