HE IS the first man most opposition coaches think about when planning for a match against Hawthorn, but St Kilda coach Ross Lyon is not obsessing over Lance Franklin.

Franklin is in rare form, having demolished the Western Bulldogs by booting eight goals in his most recent appearance.

While the man known as ‘Buddy’ is sure to be a challenge for the Saints, Lyon says the real test will come further up the ground.

“You can pick the opposition to pieces but if you don’t get your own game style right and your own systems right, you’re going nowhere,” Lyon said.

“What I do know is it’s won and lost in the midfield. That’s where most of our energies have been going.

“There’s no doubt Buddy’s going to kick some goals. It’s a matter of how many. I’ll try to not get excited in the box when he takes a speccy. He’s a very good player, isn’t he?”

St Kilda is coming off an inspirational win over Collingwood while the Hawks have had a week off.

But when asked which was the better lead-in to this week, Lyon would not be drawn on the subject.

“How do you quantify it? I think we’ll all judge that post-game. I’m here to talk about St Kilda. I haven’t got the week off so I’m not interested in talking about it,” he said.

The Saints coach said countering the famous Hawthorn defensive zone would play a big part in the final result.

“Where we can move the ball quickly, we’d like to. Where we’re held up, we’d like to work the ball, so it’s going to be a combination. A few ingredients go into baking the cake and we’ll have to have a couple of different styles of ball use depending on what Hawthorn throws up.”