The Hawks' leading goalkicker said on Tuesday he was "hopeful" he would take to the field for Friday night's preliminary final but admitted he had yet to really test the injury. Jack Gunston was injured during the qualifying final against West Coast. Credit:AFL Media/Getty Images "I am confident in my mind. It's healing pretty well and it's healed a lot better over the last few days as well. So I am hopeful that I'll play," he told the club website. "I haven't really done too much running yet so once I get that going I am sure we will be right." Gunston said "if everything goes well early on in the week" he would make the trip west.

Hawks' football operations chief Chris Fagan said Gunston was making "good, steady progress". "He's had a couple of good running sessions over the last few days. Yesterday he was on the treadmill, today he had a good run on the oval, just straight-line running and he came through that pretty well," Fagan said. "We've got to step it up again a little bit tomorrow – increase the pace and add a little bit more change of direction – so still at the moment we would say we were uncertain as to whether he will be playing this weekend or not." Several senior Hawks will leave for Perth on Wednesday, with the majority of the squad heading over on Thursday. While Gunston is in doubt, the Hawks still boast a variety of goal-kicking options.

They have had four players boot more than 30 goals this season, with Luke Breust (51), Jarryd Roughead (47) and Cyril Rioli (37) adding to Gunston's haul (53). Even skipper Luke Hodge has averaged more than a goal a game, well above his returns over the past three seasons. The Dockers, by comparison, have had only two players contribute more than 30 goals - Michael Walters (41) and Matthew Pavlich (39). Chris Mayne has kicked 27. The gap between the sides in scoring is clearly shown in that the Hawks have averaged 124.4 points per game, ranked No.1 in the league, in the matches they have won. The Dockers have averaged only 88.7 points per game, ranked 18th, in the matches they have won. The Dockers do strangle teams defensively, holding opponents to a league-low 60.7 points in matches they have won, but the Hawks are almost as stingy, holding rivals to 63.1 points - equal fourth-best. Speaking on The Age finals video preview, AFL great Wayne Carey says the Hawks can still score heavily even when they are not at full strength.

"At their best I think they are still the best team in it. If they are allowed time and space, they will be hard to beat," he said. "I am just not sure whether Fremantle can kick a big enough score to beat Hawthorn because even when Hawthorn are not at their absolute best, that scoreboard continues to tick over." The Hawks are likely to have learnt from their struggles against the Eagles at Domain Stadium, where the likes of Isaac Smith and Brad Hill were unable to run and carry and break the lines. Shaun Burgoyne, the silky half-back and midfielder, said the Hawks' onballers would be ready to deal with the Dockers' pressure. "We have got a lot of inside mids who are tough and hard, who can get the ball out to our runners," he said.

"Liam Shiels is one of those runners, Matt Suckling as well - it starts from inside first. Those guys come into the play when we have the inside ball and get it out to them, and they can take the ball on. We saw how good it was when Billy Hartung came on [against Adelaide] - he just wants to to take them on. "It was good to see those guys [Hill and Smith] get some touches of the ball - they kicked some goals. It provides excitement." Domain Stadium is longer and narrower than the MCG, the latter where the Hawks have a dominant record, and the ageing Perth venue can result in teams feeling the squeeze. "You don't really have to tweak your game style. You should go there and know the limitations of the oval and don't be fooled into ... a lot of people kick it out of bounds on the full over there," Burgoyne said. "Freo and West Coast play the oval so well."