Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell says the Hawks will not be preoccupied with the return of Nat Fyfe when they face Fremantle at Optus Stadium this weekend.
The Hawks are priced at 9/2 to beat the Dockers in the west and will be up against Fyfe who is set to make his long-awaited and much-anticipated return to action following injury.
Dockers are flying high
Fyfe has yet to play this season and the Dockers have done very well without him. They sit second on the ladder, just four points behind ladder-leaders Melbourne.
They have also beaten the reigning premiers and Brisbane Lions in their last two games and Mitchell says they have quality throughout the whole team this season.
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"(Fyfe) is a superstar of the game and has been for over a decade now, but the thing that's different with Freo (this year) is that they're a very even and very well-balanced team," Mitchell told reporters.
"Their whole team is playing really good football ... and they've got really talented players all over the oval. Their reliance on Fyfe is a little bit less, so there won't be too much focus on him."
Physical game
Fyfe has not been confirmed to start as yet, but Mitchell is expecting a physical game no matter who is on the pitch at Optus.
"He hasn't been named yet so we haven't spoken about testing him out physically but I imagine it's likely to be a reasonably physical game," Mitchell added.
"We expect a bit of rain over there across the course of the week, so we'll see what happens."
