Lance Franklin's high five as Hawthorn's finals hopes aliveJay Clark | August 22, 2009 10:30pm
IT was a stage meant for Graham Polak but, like a true showman, it was Lance Franklin who stole the spotlight in the win that kept Hawthorn's finals hopes alive.
The Hawks' focal point revived bursts of his superstar form from last year to kick 5.6 in the comfortable 42-victory over Richmond at Etihad Stadium.
But the killer blow was not delivered from the meaty part of his left boot, it was the pointy part of his shoulder which levelled Tigers' ball-magnet Ben Cousins late in the third term.
Like a freight train, Franklin tucked his elbow in and cannoned into Cousins who was knocked on his back and seemingly concussed by the force of the blow.
The bump, deemed a legal one by the umpires, forced Cousins off for the rest of the game and cast doubt over whether the former Eagle will make his anticipated Perth homecoming next week.
It also left the Tigers seeing stars as Hawthorn conjured a double goal from the incident.
Beau Dowler goaled seconds after Cousins was decked and then Luke McGuane retalliated to the situation by whacking Michael Osborne inside-50m.
The two strikes built a 28-point buffer and ensured the Hawks' ran out easy winners in Luke Hodge's 150th match, 20.15 (135) to 14.9 (93).
Hodge, down for almost the entire season, was fantastic along with Brad Sewell and Sam Mitchell in a midfield brigade that tried desperately to make a stand last night.
In truth, this was a match Hawthorn should never have lost anyway given that it clearly had too much midfield class for Richmond and consequently dominated possession for most of the night.
While the Hawks reamain a faint hope of playing finals, depending on the outcome of other matches, they will certainly sweat the video review of the Franklin incident.
Firstly, there was the initial shoulder that made contact to Cousins' head, then the tangle on the ground.
Regardless, Franklin was still the star for much of the evening as he proved the difference amid an otherwise new-look Hawthorn forward line that experimented with its structure.
Richmond deserved credit for the way it fought to the end to put behind it a horrid month that almost certainly burnt any chance Jade Rawlings had of winning the Tigers' coaching job.
Richmond trailed by 14 points at the half but were blown away as the Hawks' forward machine clicked and the floodgates opened in the last term with seven goals to five.
Continuing his stellar second half of the season, Brett Deledio, with 36 touches, was the standout for Richmond displaying much of the skill and poise that made him a No. 1 draft pick.
Nathan Brown was an interesting case as he played largely midfield last night in a bid to revive a career that looked almost certain to end this year, after a shocker against Collingwood last week.
He finished with 25 possessions, and, while he was by no means spectacular, he provided an accurate kick forward at times when Richmond really needed one.
Daniel Jackson worked hard but limped off late with a leg injury while Mitch Morton and Jack Riewoldt provided classy finishes when they were presented decent opportunity.
For Josh Kennedy, the Hawk who wore the brunt of their Round 17 loss to the Cats with a ill-timed handpass to Franklin, there was an eerily similar mishap.
This time, as he ran into an open goal in the third term, Kennedy opted against handballing to a screaming Franklin in the goalsquare, and instead tried to go it alone, dodging his opponent.
The same outcome awaited him, however, as Kelvin Moore, in an act of pure desperation a la Geelong's Andrew Mackie, tackled Kennedy to the ground from behind, at point blank range.
Franklin was in everything, and had his radar been more finely-tuned, and he played with a more selfish attitude, he could have kicked a big bag.
Importantly, Franklin's work-rate was arguably the best as it has been all season as he committed himself to almost every contest with menacing intent.
Indeed, some of that familiar brilliance returned as he swooped upon a handball, brushed aside two tacklers and found space to poke a goal, amid three rivals on his non-preferred right side, to give the Hawks a 27-point buffer in the second term.
But the Tigers, admirably, never gave in, closing the gap to 15 points at the half.
Polak had a largely quiet game, although his performance on the night was irrelevant in comparison to the courage he has shown coming back from his life-threatening head injury.
Still, his effort to dive in for a hard ball that made its way through Brown into the vacant arms of Morton in the goalsquare, captaured everyone's heart in the second quarter.
Teammates rushed to Polak, who finished with six touches, providing arguably the highlight of the night, and the entire MCG appluaded him.
The second stanza was an improvement on an awfully scrappy first term fought out between two teams who have spluttered their way through a disappointing season.
It was ugly stuff, with neither side able to break free of the other from what seemed like a record number of first quarter stoppages. Imagine ants stuck in treacle.
Franklin, thankfully, threatened from the start, but his attitude was one of complete team-orientation.
His decision, for example, to chip to a manned-up teammate from the pocket where he usually loves to run around and dob goals on the left, exemplified the unselfishness.
Best: Hawthorn: B Sewell L Franklin L Hodge S Mitchell C Rioli J Kennedy.
Richmond: B Deledio J Riewoldt S Tuck D Jackson N Brown.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,25966061-19742,00.html
