HAWTHORN'S latest plan to strengthen star forward Cyril Rioli's hamstrings involves high intensity hill running.

The explosive 25-year-old has battled hamstring problems for the past two seasons, missing 21 of a possible 50 games because of the injury.

After an eight-week lay-off due to a hamstring injury he played a brilliant Grand Final, with his opening quarter putting the Sydney Swans on the back foot.

The standout performance came after just one lead up game, the VFL Grand Final.

Hawthorn's fitness coach Andrew Russell said the club was well aware of the need to be innovative when it came to preparing Rioli.

"We're continually changing things with Cyril and finding different ways of doing it," Russell told AFL.com.au.

"We've done a lot of high intensity running … and done a bit more hill running than in the past."

Russell said the club could condition Rioli to play wherever the coach needed him to play and he had no issues with him playing midfield, forward or back.

But he also acknowledged that there was never any certainty when it came to injury prevention and condition.

"We certainly change things, and whether that holds up time will tell," Russell said.

The Hawks sent a physiotherapist to an overseas injury prevention conference in November to gather information about conditioning hamstrings, but conceded the real test for Rioli came when the season was underway.

After making a presentation at the Sports Analytics Summit in Melbourne on Thursday, Russell said Rioli was prepared to do the hard work to give himself the best possible chance to perform at the elite level.  

"Cyril handles these things really well," Russell said.

"He's resilient. You have to be resilient to play this game."

Rioli is one of the game's stars, having won three premierships in his 133 games.