Moyston-Willaura will face its toughest challenge yet when it hosts Tatyoon in round five on Saturday.
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The Pumas remain unbeaten after four games but the reigning premiers will not make it easy for the home team to extend its streak to five games.
The home team has won each of their games comfortably with the closest margin 33 points but coach Matt Burmeister said they will not be underestimating Tatyoon.
“We will be treating them with the hell of a lot of respect,” he said.
“They are probably the most successful club over the past few years and know what they are capable of doing on the field.
“So we are going to have to play with real desperation and aggression if we are going to beat them on Saturday.”
The team has enjoyed a settled start to the year with minimal injuries to players.
Burmeister said that is a big part of why his team is playing consistent football early in the season.
“The reason we are on top of the ladder is because it has not been about my coaching, it has been about the playing group and the consistency from them on the field,” he said.
“It is the first time in my time as coach when we have genuine selection pressure, we have four to six players playing reserves who I would quite happily welcome into the seniors at any time.”
The conditions could also play a part in the game with rain forecast for the days prior to the game.
Burmeister said there will be some forced changes to the team that will coincide with the conditions.
“Daniel Guinane and Josh Rathgeber will miss but we have got some real quality coming back into the side,” he said.
“The weather looks like it is going to be pretty grim on Thursday and Friday, so we could be in for some old school wet weather football and when it is wet, you probably have to win a different way anyway.”
The Hawks are coming off a 17-point loss to Lismore-Derrinallum and sit mid table with two wins to their name.
Tatyoon won the corresponding round five match in 2016 by three points and Hawks coach Adrian Pilgrim said the team is working towards getting a settled line-up together.
“We have not had any consistency week to week in terms of our personnel so far,” he said.
“There has been four and five changes most weeks, so we are hopeful we will hope to start to string together some good football and that will help us play better football.
“I expect we will have six or seven changes, so we will be in a much stronger position for Saturday.”
