HAWTHORN veteran Brent Guerra says the key to any team’s defence is communication, something his teammates have improved this season.

The defence has been the hardest hit of any position of the ground by injury for the Hawks this season, with Ryan Schoenmakers and Matt Suckling both suffering season-ending knee injuries, while Grant Birchall too has a knee injury and will miss at least another month.

Guerra himself has missed three matches (two due to injury), while Josh Gibson and youngster Taylor Duryea have also spent time on the sidelines.

That means at times, the Hawthorn back six has been unsettled with a number of different players rolling through in any one game.

Last week it was Kyle Cheney who played a role in defence, Duryea has played only 12 career games and Brian Lake is still learning the strengths and weaknesses of his new teammates at his new club.

Under the tutelage of defensive Coach Luke Beveridge Guerra says, however, it has been the ability of the players rolling through the defence to communicate that is the secret to its success.

The Hawks concede on average 89 points per game (ranked fifth-best in the league), but it is their ability to re-group during matches is where the success lies.

That was illustrated on Saturday, when the Hawks conceded six goals to Port Adelaide in the second quarter of Saturday’s match before re-grouping at half time to concede just six more goals for the game.

“I thought we fought back really well,” Guerra told hawthornfc.com.au

“As a defence, we never like to get a goal kicked against us but six goals is a lot in a quarter so we went in at half time and had a chat about it and came out in the second half and played really well.”

The key, Guerra says, like in any team, is communication.

“We needed to improve on our communication, which is a big thing out there,” he said.

“We said to each other we need to be talking and communicating with each other to not let them get a spare anywhere in the forward 50.

“That’s basically the message we sent across to each and we worked well together in the second half.”

Duryea has seamlessly made the transition into the senior side this season and impressed everyone involved at Hawthorn with his composure in pressure situations.

Guerra says it is the communication amongst the players that makes it easy for every player, not just the youngsters to uphold the team’s structures.

“Taylor has come into the side this year and he’s playing really good footy,” he said.

“You just always need to be communicating to help each other out, but it’s not just for the youngsters, it’s for the older blokes as well.

“You need to communicate to get yours set ups right, your positioning – so if you’ve got that right, there’s no reason why we should, as a defence be beaten by a forward line.

“We lost ‘Schoey’ at the start of the year but ‘Lakey’ has been able to come in and then Birchall goes down but we’ve got a range of players who have been able to step up and fill that role.

“We’re gelling really well together at the moment but need to keep at it, keep communicating and the leadership shown by the older boys has been great.”