Hawthorn's AFL injury crisis has come at the right time of the 2018 AFL season

Hawthorn's 11-goal demolition of Melbourne in round four has come at a cost with the club losing two of its stars for extended periods during the season.

The Hawks lost Cyril Rioli to a knee injury with an expected six-week lay-off, while Paul Puopolo will miss a similar period with a hamstring injury.

It adds to a long list of injuries for the club with the likes of Shaun Burgoyne, Grant Birchall and Jonathan Ceglar already on the sidelines. 

However, the Hawks - who are currently sitting in fourth with three wins and only one loss - have a favourable draw in the coming weeks, meaning an injury crisis may have just come at the right time.

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Sporting News AFL guru Rohan 'RoCo' Connolly believes the Hawks should be able to cope with their string of injuries in the coming weeks.

"At 3-1, they're in the top four on the ladder at the moment, they've started the season pretty consistently," Connolly told Sporting News.

"They do have some key (Rioli and Puopolo) injuries from that demolition win over Melbourne.

"How does that effect them structurally? Well, it doesn't help their two best small pressure forwards if you like alongside Luke Breust, and the Hawks territory game, those ground level terriers help lock the ball inside 50 and allow the Hawks to get those repeat inside 50 entries everyone's looking for. 

"How do they survive without those two? The good thing with Rioli out injured for so much of last year along with a number of other key players, they really were forced to develop a bit more flexibility.

"Towards the end of the season you saw the likes of Taylor Duryea playing as a defensive forward for the Hawks (and) Will Langford was another one who took on that role.

"They've got the addition of Jarman Impey who they'd prefer to use in the midfield role but he's played as a small forward for Port Adelaide, his previous club."

HAWTHORN'S INJURY LIST

While Connolly also believes the club has enough depth should star midfielder Tom Mitchell - who averages 40 touches per game in 2018 - get targeted in the coming weeks with Rioli and Puopolo out injured.

The likes of Jaeger O'Meara, Issac Smith and Liam Shiels all impressed last week against the Dees when Mitchell only had 24 disposals.

"Tom Mitchell has been the pivotal Hawthorn midfielder," Connolly said.

"The theory from opponents if you can shut down Mitchell well enough and now with those small forwards out, it's really going to hamper their ability to create enough entries and score from them.

"In terms of the timing, if you look at six weeks, Shaun Burgoyne will be back within a week, so he returns for them which is a really important addition with those other two out.

"The games Puopolo and Rioli are likely to miss taking into account North Melbourne this week, the Hawks after that have got St Kilda, Essendon, Sydney, Brisbane, West Coast, Port Adelaide and Adelaide.

"There's some tough tasks there - the Bombers, Sydney and the two South Australian teams.

"However, of that eight-game block they only actually play one game away from home (Brisbane at the Gabba).

"There's never a great time for injuries, but if you're going to be without blokes for any duration, I think their run in the draw now is probably the best time to do it."

HAWTHORN'S NEXT TWO MONTHS