An injury-riddled Hawks were rank outsiders on their last trip to the venue but sprung an upset on the 36ers in front of a venue-record crowd just shy of 9000.

A 30-19 second quarter prompted an almighty halftime spray from coach Joey Wright, but the Hawks were good enough to see the 36ers off for a win that proved a turning point in their campaign.

Wright labeled his side's effort as "unprofessional" in the aftermath and Blanchfield expects the veteran mentor to remind them of that fact ahead of Monday's showdown.

"Playing against Joey now for years on end, he'd have been drilling those guys all week and they'll be sitting there waiting for us," Blanchfield said.

"We've got a quick turnaround, they're coming off a massive [home] win against Perth, they're hungry, they're sitting just outside the top four.

"This can define their season, they're only a win or two outside the top four and this could put them one step closer to being right where they want to be.

"We've got to be able to go in there and play with that chip on our shoulder we've been playing with for the last month, execute the game plan and come out with the same result we did last time."

Offensive rebounds were the main building block of the nine-point win in their last meeting, the Hawks pulling down 17 o-boards for 19 second-chance points.

It continued a trend that's seen them lead the league in crashing the offensive glass, but it was something noticeably absent in Saturday's 13-point loss to Melbourne United.

In the absence of the injured AJ Ogilvy, the Hawks pulled down just four offensive boards and finished without a single second-chance point, something Blanchfield said his side must address quickly.

"Over the last month we've really hung our hats on being the best offensive rebounding team in the league," Blanchfield said.

"We had zero second-chance points [against United] so that was big part of our game, obviously AJ being out was a big part of that.

"Booney picking up some early fouls didn't help either but we've got to be able to find ways to get that done. It's a big part of what we do and I think that hurt us a lot."

The loss followed a huge win over Sydney on New Years' Eve and Blanchfield said the failure to manage consecutive wins this season - despite a three-quarter-time lead over United - shows his young squad still has a way to go.

"It's a skill, it's a thing you have to learn as a group, how to win close games," Blanchfield said.

"We've been in that situation and haven't been able to get it done this year. It was obviously a massive win last week against Sydney, that was good, but it would have been really nice to go back to back.

"I'm super proud of where we were a month ago to where we are now and the way we're playing.

"Everyone's out there working at a hundred per cent, no guy's taking a backward step, we're crashing the glass, we're locked into our scout and game plan. We've just got to continue to play that way."