Hawthorn pair Cyril Rioli and Liam Shiels will miss Friday night’s AFL clash with Sydney because of ankle injuries.

Hawthorn have secured a top-two finish ahead of the ANZ Stadium match, meaning they are guaranteed to host their qualifying final next weekend.

“We’ve been really cautious with our players this year making sure they’re fit and energised for our finals campaign so we won’t take any risks,” said coach Alastair Clarkson.

Rioli and Shiels suffered their injuries in last Saturday’s win over North Melbourne.

“If we wanted to push the envelope, Cyril would have played,” Clarkson said.

“But he’s played six games since his hamstring injury so it is probably the perfect time to get his body right and launch into the finals next week.”

Jordan Lewis and Paul Puopolo, who missed the North win because of injury, travelled with the team to Sydney on Thursday morning.

The Hawks could play Sydney again in next week’s qualifying final and Clarkson said it was important for his team to take good form into September.

“Winning form is good form and we don’t want to muck around with that and we’ll be going into the game with strategies that will help us defeat the Sydney Swans and I dare say they’ll be trying to do the same thing,” he said.

“We don’t want to flirt with anything and the result is a little inconsequential, but we still have a bit to play for, which is top spot.

“We still want to prepare ourselves for our finals campaign.”