Adam Cooney is calling on his teammates to replicate last week’s mental toughness and attack on the ball if they’re to challenge premiership fancies Hawthorn this Saturday.

At Whitten Oval there is a core belief that the Club is making progressive steps forward and Cooney said the team needs to draw on that positive mentality this weekend.

“It’s about backing up our attitude, the way we went into the game last week was really good,” Cooney said.

“We had a positive week on the track, we have again this week.

“It’s just about getting that consistency of effort over four quarters – we didn’t have a great start on the weekend against the Bombers but we were able to peg them back after quarter time.

“We will be looking to start really well against a quality side this week.”

Hawthorn have built a reputation of strong first quarters, winning 12 opening terms this season by an average of 19 points.

Cooney said Senior Coach Brendan McCartney will be looking to the leaders of the Club to drive high standards and effort from the first bounce.

“Macca is really big on the leaders of the club showing the way in our voice and the way we go about it,” he said.

“I am certainly one of the older guys now, so it is up to me and Dale Morris is a good one back there to keep everything together.”