Hawthorn has admitted it has no option but to throw 20-year-old ruckman Brent Renouf to the wolves in Sunday's clash with North Melbourne.

The injury-wracked AFL premiers' lack of big men has cost them dearly as they attempt to halt a 0-2 start to their defence of the flag.

Defender Stephen Gillam has been an important recall with coach Alastair Clarkson acknowledging the side had leaked more goals this year than in its previous three starts.

But the Hawks will rely almost solely on Renouf to do the ruck work with Simon Taylor out through suspension.

"He's a big strong lad and he'll have to shoulder a fair amount of the responsibility and they've got two or three guys that they can obviously roll through that area of the ground," Clarkson said.

"But we'll compete as best we can in that part of the ground and see how we go - there's not much we can do about it.

"Taylor should certainly be available next week and (fellow ruckman Robert) Campbell in the next one or two.

"We'd anticipate he gets a bit of help in the next couple of weeks - but it's great exposure and experience for him.

"He's a kid who's only in his third year of footy and he's played 10 games of AFL footy - one of which is a grand final which is fortunate for him.

"It's great for his development but not so great for us that we have to thrust so much responsibility on to him at such an early stage in his career," he said.

Clarkson said the team would not fall into the trap of trying to force a win to get its campaign back on track.

"We're looking forward to trying to win," he said.

"We're not too pleased with the fact we're 0-2 but we've played two pretty good sides - the Cats are obviously a stellar unit and the Swans are always hard to beat up there.

"We want to try and get a victory but we're realistic to know too that we certainly haven't got our best team out on the paddock at the present time.

"Some of those guys will slowly drift into the side over the next two to three weeks and we've got to do the best we can in the meantime to try and manufacture a couple of victories.

"We've tried that over the first couple of weeks and haven't quite got the points and it will be another significant challenge to try and do it again tomorrow (Sunday) against the Kangaroos."

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