HAWTHORN holds no fears that dual premiership forward Lance Franklin could be the player that stops the club from winning back-to-back flags despite the Sydney Swans star entering Saturday's Grand Final in top form.
As the Hawks accepted the underdog tag on Sunday, key forward Jarryd Roughead said he had never contemplated facing his former teammate in a Grand Final after Franklin joined the Swans at the end of last season.
Now the Hawks will needs to find a way to stop the dynamic forward, who has added new strings to his bow in Sydney and displayed his full bag of tricks against North Melbourne on Friday night in an imposing preliminary final performance that reaped five goals.
"We've played two games against him so far and he's kicked 4.11 I think," Roughead said on Sunday.
"We know because he played with us here he's able to get that many shots on goal.
"I dare say the defence will look at him close this week and the boys have been good on him before.
"The blokes that play on him will know a few tricks ... they've played on him enough out here [at training]."
Franklin was dubbed a "faceless man" by Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson when the club squared off against the superstar at the MCG in round 18, emphasising he was just one of 22 Swans the Hawks needed to combat.
Roughead said the pair would put their friendship on hold in Grand Final week.
"I'll probably see him on Friday," Roughead said.
"We speak and send each other texts before the game wishing each other the best.
"We're still going to be mates, but I suppose for two or three hours next week we probably won't be mates."
Roughead said the Hawks had adjusted well to life without Franklin when he was unavailable at times in 2013 and proved they were "capable of winning games and having a good forward structure".
He said this year wasn't very different, with Roughead (70 goals), Jack Gunston (56) and Luke Breust (54) all enjoying fine seasons in a multi-pronged forward line.
After booting six goals against Port Adelaide in his best finals performance on Saturday night, Roughead also enters the Grand Final in strong form.
"It was nice to get on the end of a few ... I haven't been lucky enough to kick that amount of goals in a final before," the 27-year-old said.
"In a game where it was close, to be able to contribute like that was very good.
"A couple [of my finals] haven't been good, but it doesn't matter if you play a bad one and you win a final because you still go through and you're still lucky enough to win Grand Finals.
"I've been lucky enough to play in 15 finals, and every final's different. Yesterday was another different one."
Roughead said he had seen key midfielder Jordan Lewis at the club on Sunday morning and he would be shocked if the All Australian missed the Grand Final because of a corked thigh.
With tough selection decisions looming around Cyril Rioli and Brad Sewell he said all players at the club had a crucial role to play in getting the team into a position to win on Saturday.
"We've got a saying around here, 'squads win premierships, not just the 22'."
