Hawks team news for the Brisbane match has been dominated by the two-week suspension of captain Luke Hodge, absence of his predecessor Sam Mitchell and doubts over fellow triple premiership winner Grant Birchall.

But the club's biggest issues have surrounded the departure and return of future and past Carlton coaches.

The round 22 clash marks Hawthorn's first match in seven years without Brendon Bolton, but as the former Northern Bomber left his fellow assistant coach Brett Ratten made a surprise appearance with his son Tanner.

Less than two weeks after a car accident claimed the life of his older son, Cooper, the popular assistant returns to take his place in the coach's box at Aurora Stadium.

Head coach Alastair Clarkson said there was no better environment than a footy club to get back into the swing of things and welcomed Tanner along for the trip to Launceston, just four days after Cooper's funeral.

"They're very, very sad circumstances but at some point in time it's really good for him and his family that he gets back into the fold of a footy club," Clarkson said.

"Tanner has been a big part of our footy club with 'Ratts' over the last three years too, so it's a great chance for him to come down and spend some time with his dad and all of our players."

Clarkson was confident that his team's quest for a third straight flag would not be derailed by the departure of Bolton.

"You lose a soldier, you replace him with another one, whether it's a player or a coach or administrator," he said.

"Our club isn't about relying too heavily on any one individual.

"We know what to expect, we've got contingencies for this sort of stuff all the time in terms of other people stepping into the role, whether it's assistant coaches or with my illness last year, we've had a person there."

The AFL's highest and lowest scoring teams both trained on a fresh afternoon at Aurora Stadium with Mitchell nowhere to be seen and a question mark hanging over Birchall, who barely raised a sweat and did not remove his jacket.

"He's a little bit crook," Clarkson said of Mitchell, who did not leave Melbourne with his teammates.

"He only came down late yesterday afternoon with this illness and we're hoping he'll bounce out of it."

"It's looking more unlikely than likely at this point in time."

Still ruing the match review panel's decision to suspend Hodge for bumping Chad Wingard into a goalpost last Friday night, Clarkson hoped his skipper's second enforced break of the campaign wouldn't disrupt his finals preparation.

"He's an experienced player and we'll just do what's required in terms of getting him well conditioned over the next couple of weeks, and hopefully he'll be available for us in the first week of finals."

Midfielder Will Langford, ruckman David Hale and forward James Sicily all return for Jack Gunston's 100th match, with Paul Puopolo out with an ankle injury and Ryan Schoenmakers omitted.

Lions vice-captain Daniel Rich (glute) and Justin Clarke (jaw) will return from injury while defender Hugh Beasley has regained his place.