Hosting the Hawks at Port Macquarie Regional Stadium, Hawkins will use last weekend's loss to Wauchope and the potential of a third place play off as motivation.

"We need to win this game, which will be a stepping stone in playing Wingham for third spot next week," he said. 

"Looking at (the ladder) on paper doesn't say a lot. If we aren't on our game on the weekend then they'll take their opportunities."

A string of penalties and sin bins in their recent games has been put down to individuals, with Hawkins saying they can ill afford to let emotions take over.

"We get too emotional in patches of the game. We buy into the niggling stuff and our attitude isn't where it should be at this time of the year," he said. 

"It's something we need to work on as individuals. We'll work on getting through our game plan rather than buying into any nonsense."

A huge boost last weekend was the return of club stalwart Matt Shipway for the rest of the season.

The game kicks off at 3pm.