Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson has challenged ruckman Simon Taylor to overpower Sydney's Shane Mumford in what Clarkson labels the battle of the "monsters".

The Hawks (38 points) are sixth on the AFL ladder and face a crucial round-19 battle against eighth-placed Sydney (36) at the SCG on Saturday.

Clarkson says he's excited about the role Taylor could play as the Hawks try to re-focus their premiership campaign following last week's shock loss to Port Adelaide.

Garry Moss and Matt Suckling also return for Cyril Rioli (two-game suspension), Brendan Whitecross and Wayde Skipper.

Clarkson said Rioli was a classy player and a big loss, but he was upbeat about Taylor's potential impact.

"He had ankle surgery earlier in the year from a mishap he had in our last practice game," Clarkson told AAP on Friday at the SCG.

"He had about 16 weeks off and he has played the last four back at Box Hill.

"He's match-conditioned. We've been a little bit under-sized.

"Wayde Skipper (194cm and 93kg) has done an admirable job for us. But he has just fallen away a little bit in the last couple of weeks.

"He's not the size of the monsters that usually run around playing in the ruck.

"Taylor is a much bigger man (202cm and 104kg) so we'll see how he goes.

"He's going to take a little while to get used to playing at the level again but we're pretty excited about what he might be able to contribute for us."

Clarkson was full of praise for the efforts of ex-Cat Mumford.

"He has had a super year and justified the decision for Sydney to go after him so hard," Clarkson said.

"It's going to be a big challenge for our boys (Taylor and fellow ruckman Brent Renouf)."

Clarkson clearly doesn't share the view expressed by Jason Akermanis in a newspaper column this week that the game had gone past Sydney's Brett Kirk and his team-mates could no longer carry him.

Clarkson says the 33-year-old midfielder, who is retiring at season's end, remains an inspirational figure.

"All I know about Brett Kirk is he's a fantastic leader for the Swans and has been for the best part of a decade.

"He's very respected not just within the Sydney Swans but in the AFL community.

"They'll draw some inspiration from his leadership but it's our 22 versus their 22 and collectively we've just got to get the job done."

After two huge losses to Melbourne and Geelong, the Swans are one win and percentage ahead of ninth-placed North Melbourne.

"Every game from now on is almost a finals game for us," Sydney's ex-Hawk Josh Kennedy said on Friday.

Hawthorn were two-point winners over Sydney at the MCG in round 10 and the Swans have won their past three SCG clashes against the Hawks in 2004, 2005 and 2007.

Clarkson said he was expecting another tough contest.

"We'd like to think the power of our two big forwards could be a real deciding factor in the game," he said.

"We know we're going to have to work really hard for our goals and hopefully (Buddy) Franklin and (Jarryd) Roughead can be a key part of that."

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