Jack Gunston and Shaun Burgoyne may have kicked 1.8 between them in the five-point loss to Carlton, but Clarkson said they will be valuable frontline weapons.

“Even if that becomes 5.4 or 6.3 we probably win the game convincingly,” he said.

Teammates in the premierships of 2013, ’14 and ’15, both players can operate at either end of the ground and their coach said such versatility is priceless.

Gunston, 26 (290 goals in 149 games), was Hawthorn’s leading goalkicker in 2015 and ’16 before adopting a more defensive role last season, while Burgoyne, 35, who also won a flag with Port Adelaide in 2004, has 276 goals in a 341-game career predominantly played in defence for the Hawks.

Carlton went into expectation minimisation mode after completing the club’s second pre-season victory.

“Nice to be winning but it is only pre-season,” said Dale Thomas, who kicked three second-half goals as the Blues stormed back from five goals down. 

“For our group to be building this culture of winning and doing it like we did –  we really dug deep –  is good signs (but) the season proper is a different ball game.”

With a triple-figure score and 11 individual goal-kickers, Jacob Weitering said there were plenty of positives for the Blues.

Assistant coach Cam Bruce said he was pleased to see the Blues were capable of “winning ugly” if need be.

The club said it was confident of having Matthew Kreuzer fit for Round 1 after the ruckman limped out of the game in the first half.

Clarkson expected Paul Puopolo to recover from a corky and said out-tackling the Blues 90 to 50 and dominating the inside-50 count suggested the Hawks were on the right track.