Franklin has received plenty of exposure in Adelaide all week with experts and media personalities across the country sharing their opinions on how to stop the Coleman Medal favourite.
On Friday alone, Adelaide's Advertiser dedicated three pages to the 21-year-old and Crows coach Neil Craig said nullifying Franklin’s influence was "obviously an issue" for his team.
"We understand why [there is so much hype], because of Lance’s record against just about every club this year apart from maybe Richmond and Melbourne, which is interesting," Craig said.
"We respect that and we also understand what he’s been able to do against us in the past. We need to try and nullify what he does because often their winning score correlates pretty well with what Lance Franklin has been able to kick."
Franklin has booted 13 goals in his past two games against Adelaide, including six on Bock and Ben Rutten in round four.
Bock is the frontrunner for a rematch and Craig gave his best indication yet that the Crows would not employ a loose man to plug space in front of the exciting forward.
"I thought Nathan Bock was pretty good on him in the end [in Launceston], but it’s hard to sit here and assess it because the ball was streaming down there [into the forward line] that day," Craig said.
"I’ve got a lot of confidence that all our taller defenders could do a reasonable job and that’s Rutten, Bock, Scott Stevens, if he plays there, and also Nathan Bassett from an experience point of view.
"We’ve got some flexibility there if we need to use it and the chances are that it might happen, not just because of what Lance can do, but because of some of their other set-ups too.
"I recognise Lance is a very, very good player and it won’t be won just because Rutten did a sensational job against Franklin. It will be a real team responsibility.
"But you have to be careful with that [dropping someone in front of Franklin] because of the way we set up.
"If you take someone out of your forward line to go back, it gives them loose people and it actually aids their zone."
