Towards the end of what has been an even home-and-away season, the reigning premiers will stay at least a game clear on the top of the ladder after their 39-point victory over North Melbourne at the MCG on Saturday afternoon.

But Clarkson said despite the win, the Hawks had much to improve upon before they began their finals campaign.

"I don't think today's form is going to win us a key final or a grand final, we need to play at bit better," he said.

"We're not overly concerned with playing premiership football right at this point in time, it's more about getting the wins and making sure our players are getting continuity in their footy from week to week."

Hawthorn won soundly, but when they scored 8.4 (52) to North's solitary goal in the opening term, it looked like they were about to thrash their opposition by a massive margin.

Clarkson said that after such a strong first quarter, it was disappointing that Hawthorn had allowed North Melbourne back in the game, although that was much to do with the Kangaroos lifting as it was the Hawks' mistakes with the ball.

"They're a good opponent and you always expect at some point they're going to have a little bit of the flow of the game," he said.

"Their bigger fellas troubled us at different stages, they took a lot of contested marks, we thought we could have got a hand on some of those balls a little bit better."

North Melbourne coach Brad Scott conceded his team was listless in the first quarter, but said he had had no inkling that might be the case before the start of the match.

He said he was pleased with how much determination his players had shown in fighting back after the first break, but was disappointed that their defense fell away again in the final quarter.

"We needed to score at the end to win, that's what we were trying to do, but we don't want to be a team that just goes all out to try and score and if we don't we get scored against, which is basically what happened in the first and last quarter," he said.

Adding to North's woes, veteran Brent Harvey may attract the attention of the AFL's match review panel this week, after making contact with Sam Mitchell that some considered too high.

The team faces strong opposition sides in Sydney and GWS in the lead-up to the finals, but Scott said injured players Scott Thompson and Ben Brown may be ready to return next weekend.