LANCE Franklin has returned to haunt Adelaide booting six goals in his side’s 17.12 (114) to 10.10 (70) win at Aurora Stadium on Sunday.

Franklin kicked seven goals to oust the Crows from last year’s finals series and proved to be the thorn in their side  again with a strong performance in front of 15,124 fans.

The Hawks were dealt a couple of blows before the opening bounce with skipper Sam Mitchell and forward Tim Boyle late withdrawals, but it mattered little as they soaked up Adelaide’s best efforts in the first half before accelerating away in the second.

Chance Bateman was outstanding in his 100th game with 30 possessions and two goals. He was the driving force in the pivotal third quarter.

Brent Guerra played as a loose man in defence for most of the day and made the most of the freedom, gathering 38 touches, with Shane Crawford (28), Luke Hodge (25) and Clint Young (25) firing the engine room.

Tyson Edwards was Adelaide’s most damaging onballer with 25 touches, and while Michael Doughty (28) and Scott Thompson (27) saw plenty of the ball their effectiveness was often negated.

In the early running, both sides missed easy shots despite calm conditions at the picture-perfect ground.

Franklin, matched up by Ben Rutten, wasn’t immune and took a couple of sighters before nailing his first goal from roughly the same position on the field from where he broke Crow hearts in last year’s elimination final.

The Hawks established ownership of the central corridor looked the more dangerous of the two sides but Adelaide did well to manufacture goals to Scott Stevens and Brett Burton, the latter a brilliant, curving shot from a seemingly impossible angle.

Franklin’s set shot from roughly the same spot as his first had the same result to send his side into the first break with an eight-point advantage.

Edwards had been the prime mover for the Crows in the first quarter and he continued to excel in the second, but Hawthorn had more winners through the middle and soon skipped away.

Mark Williams, a late replacement for Boyle, bagged his first after a nice pass from Franklin, but “Buddy” was just warming up and slammed through two more of his own inside a minute to set alarm bells ring in Neil Craig’s coach’s box.

Action was soon forthcoming and in-form centre half-back Nathan Bock, who had been minding Jarryd Roughead, switched places with Rutten.

Adelaide was finding it difficult to create space in the forward 50 where Grant Birchall was exerting a strong influence but Ken McGregor took a nice pack mark just outside the goal square to keep his side in touch.

The Hawks had no such trouble moving into attack and looked to be in ominous touch at 30 points up, but a late goal to Simon Goodwin made it a three-goal margin at half-time.

Bateman kicked the first goal of the third quarter with the first of his 12 possessions for the term which set his side up for victory.

Once again, Franklin was at the forefront with another couple of goals blowing the margin out to 44 points late in the period.

The Crows’ run was effectively shut down with the few shots they did have on goal coming from difficult angles as they were forced wide by the Hawthorn zone with Burton’s left foot snap for his second the only resistance to the onslaught.

Adelaide mustered one last challenge and kicked successive goals for the first time in the match late in the shadows of three-quarter time to bring the deficit back to 31 points, but Williams, enjoying his first run of the season, slotted his third shortly before the siren.

Neither side was able to split the middle for the first 15 minutes of the last quarter but when Crawford finally bagged his only major for the day, it was effectively the end of the contest.

MATCH DETAILS

Hawthorn  3.4   8.5 14.8 17.12 (114)
Adelaide    2.2  5.5  8.7  10.10 (70)

GOALS:
Hawthorn: Franklin 6, Williams 3, Bateman 2, Guerra, Crawford, Young, Hodge, Rioli, Roughead, Clarke.
Adelaide: Stevens 2, Burton 2, Thompson, Edwards, Vince, Symes, Goodwin, McGregor.

BEST:
Hawthorn: Bateman, Hodge, Franklin, Young, Guerra, Birchall.
Adelaide: Edwards, Doughty, Burton, Porplyzia.

INJURIES:
Hawthorn: T Tuck (knee), S Mitchell (calf) replaced in selected side by T Clarke, T Boyle (hip) replaced in selected side by M Williams.
Adelaide: Nil

REPORTS: Nil.

UMPIRES: Michael Vozzo (2), Mathew Nicholls (15), Justin Schmitt (17)

CROWD: 15,124 at Aurora Stadium, Launceston.