Fresh from a break many felt he and Dean Brogan should not have had, Port Adelaide ruckman Brendon Lade has underlined the importance of beating AFL pacesetters Hawthorn at the stoppages.

Power and Dream Team coach Mark Williams gave Lade and Brogan the weekend off rather than picking them to contest the AFL's representative showpiece match.

It was a decision that raised eyebrows, most publicly those of Brisbane coach Leigh Matthews.

Looking happy about life after not having a match to worry about on the weekend, Lade said a large portion of the effort required to defeat the Hawks would rest with he and Brogan.

"It's probably the most important thing against Hawthorn, they're the No.1 clearance team in the league, people like (Sam) Mitchell, (Chance) Bateman, (Jordan) Lewis, you could rattle off seven or eight names there and they all go through the middle and do a great job," Lade said.

"We're definitely going to have our work cut out, it's probably a lot to do with the ruckmen, see if they can get their hands to the ball and then it's up to the onballers to just beat your man I suppose.

"If everyone beats their man around the clearances we'll win more than we lose."

Lade reserved plenty of respect for Hawthorn's blue collar ruck tandem of Simon Taylor and Robert Campbell, who like their rising team appear to improve every week.

"They're probably one of the best two going around at the moment, they're not the Dean Cox or Jamie Charman or Josh Fraser, but they're good, honest ruckmen, they do their job and do what the coaches tell them to do and they've formed a wonderful partnership," Lade said.

"Dean and I have been doing it for a fair bit longer than those two and hopefully we've got an edge over them come Saturday."

Hawthorn's large contingent of ex-Port players and coaching staff has been rounded out still further this season by the acquisition of Stuart Dew, and Lade forecast an amusing if at times tetchy afternoon for his former premiership teammate.

"It's been funny seeing him out there for Hawthorn in the No. 31," he said.

"We've never had the chance to play against Dewy before, so it will be good on Saturday - he knows all our strengths and weaknesses and we probably know his too, so it goes a bit both ways.

"He was one of the best (at on-field verbals) when he was at our club, so I assume he's still the same."

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