WIND lashed the MCG when Hawthorn and St Kilda met most recently, in round eight, but that was nothing compared with the dark cloud that hung over the game after the Hawks' victory.

In the weeks that followed, the game's future was questioned, with many commentators and former players describing the tedious, dour contest as the worst in recent history.

Fans booed as the teams left the field at half-time, having scored only two goals each in a match riddled with errors and strangled almost to the point of putting spectators to sleep.

Only seven goals were kicked by three-quarter-time and few at the ground expected many more in the final term, which surprisingly produced six for the Hawks and three for the Saints.

Reflecting on the match yesterday, Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson was still bemused by the reaction and said his club had learned a lot from the contest. "It was an interesting game last time we played, wasn't it — a real tug of war," he said. "That's the great beauty of AFL footy; you get all types (of games) and when it's a real tug of war, you've got to consider different tactics.

"Funnily enough, finals are more often won with low-scoring games than high-scoring games, so you need to work out how to go about playing them.

"The Saints have played in finals over the last couple of years and we haven't, so we need to learn how to play in that type of environment as much as we can. While everyone else didn't particularly enjoy that contest, as a football club, we got enormous benefit out of playing that game.

"Three weeks later, we played Sydney in a similar type of (game) and didn't win … two or three weeks later, we played Collingwood in a similar environment and we did win, so it's great experience for our players."

Although the Hawks beat Richmond last weekend by 53 points and earned a share of second place, Clarkson is still wary of the 11th-placed, but improving, Saints.

"Nothing surprises me about St Kilda; they're a quality outfit," he said. "If they get all their players back and get a decent run at it, they're going to be a very, very potent outfit in the last part of the season.

"They've made a few changes since the mid-season break. Some of that has been personnel, but some have been tweaks to their game plan. Leading into round 11, they were averaging 11 or 12 goals a game and over the last four rounds they've averaged 14 or 15 goals a game — that's quite significant in terms of a couple of tweaks to the way they're moving the ball."

Clarkson expects tonight's game at Telstra Dome to be played like a "mini-final," with St Kilda's hopes of making the finals poised on securing an eighth win. "Our goal is to get the 13 wins that, I think, is required to play finals footy (and) we'll be working very hard to get that extra one against the Saints," he said. "St Kilda know if they lose this week, it's going to make it enormously difficult for them to play finals this year."

The Hawks have not made any changes, and Max Hudghton returns from injury to play his 200th game for the Saints.