Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson's belief that AFL ladder positions are irrelevant was reinforced by Friday night's Geelong-Fremantle clash.

And when the Hawks tackle the Richmond at the MCG Sunday he will be highly conscious of the fact that the Tigers pulled off something that unbeaten reigning premiers Geelong couldn't.

They demolished Fremantle at their Subiaco home base.

The ladder-leading Cats escaped with a one-point win over the Dockers Friday night while in round four Richmond, who were recently elevated to the top eight, romped to victory.

"Richmond have been in really good form, they actually beat Fremantle by 10 goals over in the West and the reigning premier could only just sneak over the line," Clarkson said Saturday.

"Everyone looks at ladder positions but we know every game's extremely tough and we've got a fair amount of regard for the way Richmond are going about it at the present time."

But he is at least confident that Hawthorn's busy midfield should be able to dominate, the key to any game, he said.

"It's always the same with every game that you play, it's midfield supply and Richmond have got a very dangerous forward line, if the ball gets in their quickly.

"Similarly our forward line's damaging too if we can get the ball in there frequently.

"The midfield battle's going to be crucial and we like to think that we stack up pretty well in that area but we also recognise that Richmond's quite strong in that area of the ground."

The forecast is for rain, a rarity in matches these days, but Clarkson said slow conditions would not hamper the side's star talls, including the athletic goalkicker Lance Franklin.

"We don't play in wet conditions that much over the whole AFL competition so apart from actually changing your mindset in terms of the way you approach the ball we won't change the structure of our side or the way that we play too much," Clarkson said.

"All sides like to be hard at the footy and whether it's wet or dry conditions the same principles apply."

Meanwhile, former Port Adelaide forward Stuart Dew is edging closer to selection following a hamstring injury against Fremantle last month.

"He could have nearly been right for this week's game and we'll still make a call on him next week - whether it's appropriate to bring him in for that game and then rest him or whether we just rest him until after the State of Origin game," Clarkson said.

"We'll wait and see how that unfolds but he's put in a really good rehab block over the last four weeks and he's nearly ready to go."

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