HAWTHORN are nine and one and in a powerful position on the field, but tonight t Etihad Stadium, it has another weapon that doesn’t have a piercing left foot or explosive pace.

It has a coach who knows its opposition players inside and out.

Former Carlton coach Brett Ratten has swapped his navy blue for brown and gold and he’s letting his new team in on all the secrets of his former players.

While the Blues have a new coach, a new game plan and a new approach to the game, one thing that hasn’t changed under Mick Malthouse is the personnel.

From Chris Judd and Marc Murphy to Michael Jamison and Mitch Robinson, Ratten has spent time with each and every player who’ll represent Carlton at Etihad Stadium tonight and he knows their strengths and their weaknesses.

Hawthorn assistant coaches Luke Beveridge, Brendon Bolton and Simpon, Hawthorn players as well as Senior Coach Alastair Clarkson have all turned to Ratten this week for insight into each and every Carlton player.

There hasn’t been more of an emphasis placed on knowledge of the opposition’s game style this week though, despite the undoubted advantage Hawthorn has over the Blues on Friday night.

Simpson says studying the opposition is part of the preparation for each game, so the Hawthorn players and coaches are merely doing what it does each week – except this time, there’s a bit more inside knowledge into the personnel and their nuances.

That’s where the focus has been for the Hawks.

“You do analysis of opposition sides anyway in terms of personnel probably more than style of play,” Simpson told hawthornfc.com.au

“It’s the personnel there at Carlton that were there when Ratts was there that we can really get into.

“I put a little bit more focus on that and definitely went to Ratts, as all the line coaches have in terms of preparing for a team he knows in and out.”

While Ratten knows the Carlton players inside and out, there have been changes implemented by Malthouse since he took over the reins last November.

But Simpson says there are similarities between the Carlton of 2012 and the Carlton of today.

“There’s no doubt Mick’s brought parts of his own style of player to Carlton, but there’s still areas, obviously with Ratts working with us, we’ve identified that they’re still doing,” he said.

“They’re in the very early stages of Mick’s career at Carlton so there are a few differences and we’ve got a bit of an advantage I suppose with Brett being at our club and hopefully we can use that to our advantage.”