The Dockers' general of defence believes that quelling the dynamic duo is one of the keys to winning Saturday's Grand Final.
Franklin and Roughead combined for 16 marks and eight goals against the Dockers in the Hawks' 42-point round-four win in Launceston earlier this year.
McPharlin did not play in that match due to concussion suffered against Essendon in round three, but he did play in round five, 2012, against the Hawks at the same venue when Franklin and Roughead combined for 12 marks and five goals in a 56-point win.
The 31-year-old Docker defender believes that Franklin and Roughead pose the toughest test in the competition for any defensive group.
"They're super players, so they'll provide a great challenge for myself, Zac Dawson, Michael Johnson," McPharlin said.
"But of course to play against these types you need the pressure up the field to be first class and we saw that last night with our forwards and midfielders.
"The pressure they're able to put on sides really makes our job easier as defenders."
Franklin and Roughead have won three Coleman medals between them yet they were relatively quiet in the Hawks' thrilling five-point win over Geelong in Friday's first preliminary final.
They managed to pull down just five marks between them.
Roughead went goalless for just the second time this season while Franklin's solitary goal came from a toe-poke in the goal square.
McPharlin observed that Franklin was pushed further up the ground, away from goal, as the preliminary final progressed.
"There's opportunities like that in the game.
"Again it all depends on how we're defending as an entire team that we'd have those opportunities to do that.
"So we need to get in charge with the clearances at the start, and the ground and contested ball, to allow us to play the game on our terms."
Fremantle captain Matthew Pavlich echoed McPharlin's assertion that defending the powerful Hawthorn attack required pressure from all over the park.
"It’s not only that back six; it’s the entire defensive pressure that we put on oppositions," he said.
"We’ll be asking questions of Hawthorn with our defensive pressure all over the ground, which hopefully they haven’t seen this year.
"Clearly we need to bring that to life.
"It’s really powerful when the whole team’s doing it."
