Hawthorn, primed for its first final after a Friday-night demolition of the Pies, now has too many fit and in-form players – and Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson has too few spots on his selection whiteboard to fit them all in.

In contrast to its injury-decimated opponent, Hawthorn has in-form players who can't get a game – headlined most obviously by lead ruckman Ben McEvoy.

Captain Luke Hodge and winger Brad Hill both missed the game with soreness, and their replacements didn't disappoint, particularly sub Billy Hartung, who was excellent after coming on for the fourth quarter.

"It's not great for the players necessarily because it's really hard to fit 26 or 28 or 30 players into 22 spots but we'll work out over the course of the weekend who our opponent is for next week's game and we'll pick a side that we think will give us the best chance to advance through to the next week of the finals," Clarkson said after the match.

"It sounds boring. But that's the flexibility we've got as a side to work out what we'll do with our rucks, our forwards, our backs, our mids. That's a real bonus that we're in that position."

Norm Smith medallist Brian Lake is likely to come up for the next match despite donning the subs vest late in the third quarter after receiving a knee to the hip from Collingwood's Jesse White.

"He just got a corky. It closed him down a bit so we got him off the ground. We were going to make a sub at that point in time anyway. It just so happened that he got sore at that point in time," Clarkson said.

A lot of hard work remained to be done but at the end of the home and away rounds the coach declared the Hawks' campaign so far a success.

"We got everything that we wanted thus far out of the season. We set ourselves at the start of the season to make top four. I'm really pleased that the lowest we can finish now is second. It gives us a final at the MCG no matter what happens now."