The three trained ahead of the main group on Friday at Gosch's Paddock and completed sideways running and jumping drills after being cleared to take things up a notch.
While the Pies remain cautious about their chances of playing this season, teammate Alex Fasolo said it's encouraging to see the two knee reconstruction recipients in particular taking steps forward.
"They're doing full contact training, which is great," Fasolo said.
"We don't really know if they'll get back … for anyone who does an ACL, you have to take a cautious approach so we'll just wait and see.
"They've been out on the track doing a fair bit lately and it's incredible to see them out doing that already so fingers crossed."
Macaffer and Krakouer suffered knee injuries within a week of each other in February.
Johnson had a shoulder reconstruction at the start of May.
The veteran defender recently told AFL.com.au he was aiming to play in the VFL in round 20, and the seniors two weeks later.
Fasolo said Scott Pendlebury and Chris Tarrant had recovered well throughout the week following their first game after lengthy injury layoffs.
He also said Dale Thomas had been "flying" despite the foot he bruised against Carlton two weeks ago.
Fasolo conceded Hawthorn would enter Saturday's clash as favourites but admitted the Pies would attempt to slow things down after a frenetic round one contest that saw the Hawks prevail by 22 points.
"It was a very ping-pong game in round one, it was kind of back and forth and there were a lot of fast breaks so we'll probably change that and it will be a bit of a focus for us," he said.
"They've got obviously got a lot of depth so we'll be looking to play our best footy.
"It's another chance to probably redeem ourselves and we're really looking forward to making amends.
"It's round 17 so we've had a lot of preparation until now and we're definitely a different team but [so is] Hawthorn so it's a great opportunity."
Jennifer Witham is a reporter for AFL Media. Follow her on Twitter @AFL_JenWitham
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs
