Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson expects another physical encounter against North Melbourne on Saturday.

The teams last faced off in a fiery clash in Round 13, and Clarkson said he had no issues with either side’s approach.

“They are always physical encounters; particularly the top eight teams when you come up against each other, there’s a lot of competitiveness,” Clarkson said.

“That’s what you expect when you come up against those teams, so I wouldn’t expect it’s going to be any different tomorrow.”

Asked whether he’d be disappointed if North chose to “target players”, Clarkson responded strongly.

“That’s the game. We’ve got 22 blokes in a sense that we target on the opposition. You’ve got to try and defeat the opposition,” he said.

“We’ll take that approach into tomorrow. We’ve got to beat the whole Kangaroos’ side, not just one or two of them.”

Despite sitting on top of the ladder, a loss could be a blow to the Hawks’ top four aspirations.

But Clarkson said the clash against North was “just another game”.

“There are 22 home-and-away games and they’re building blocks towards finals in terms of getting as many wins as you can to qualify for finals,” he said.

“It goes without saying every game is important, but this week’s game is no more important than last week’s game or next week’s game – we’ll be doing our upmost to get the four points and I’m sure North Melbourne will do the same.”

The Kangaroos were dealt a blow on Friday, with Scott Thompson and Ben Brown both ruled out due to injury.

Hawthorn made five changes to its team at selection on Thursday, recalling premiership players James Frawley, Liam Shiels and Paul Puopolo.

Ben Stratton was sidelined with a pectoral injury, while James Sicily, who booted five goals when the teams last met, is out due to suspension.