FOOTBALL can be such a cruel game, offering its players great highs and crashing lows in almost the same instant.

In Friday night's second qualifying final, Daniel Menzel was clearly Geelong's most potent option up forward in the early stages, kicking the Cats' first two goals.

His game - and his year - ended in the second quarter when a seemingly innocuous clash on the outer wing saw him collapse to the ground in agony as his knee twisted, his ACL ruptured.

Lance Franklin was Hawthorn's only forward line option for most of the night, his teammates' internal GPS systems automatically locking onto his searching leads.

Early, he had run deep into defence and the midfield in an attempt to exhaust his opponent Tom Lonergan, and initially, it had looked like he had succeeded.

Lonergan fought back bravely, but deep in the last term, as the match slipped away from Hawthorn, Franklin's 4.3 had accounted for almost half of the Hawks' score.

Then disaster struck.

The big Hawk stretched for a mark, landed on a rigid right leg, and fell in a heap. It was instantly apparent that he was in big trouble as he hobbled off, dangled between two trainers.

A week ago, Menzel was a NAB AFL Rising Star nominee, one of the most promising young forwards in the competition, and Franklin was the newly crowned Coleman medallist. Now both had come tumbling down.

The clubs' reactions to the two incidents could not have been more different.

Within minutes of Menzel being stretchered from the ground, Geelong had tweeted that he had damaged his anterior cruciate and that his season was over.

He got a sympathetic ovation as he manoeuvred himself gingerly around the boundary line on a set of crutches in the third quarter.

Franklin was hurt late in the game, so the Hawks could rightly wait for scans on Saturday and make no assumptions about the extent of the damage to his knee.

Coach Alastair Clarkson dismissed the first question of his media conference, which was about Franklin's fate, saying that he preferred to talk about the match first.

After his analysis of the loss, he offered only that his full-forward had a sore knee.

Captain Luke Hodge, with ice packs strapped to his right thigh, knee and ankle, emerged to echo the official line that the Hawks would wait for medical confirmation of Franklin's state. They will do so with enormous trepidation.

If Franklin is missing next week, the winner of Saturday night's St Kilda-Sydney Swans clash will go into their semi-final against the Hawks with great confidence.

Geelong moves onto a fifth consecutive preliminary final without Menzel, but with its tall forwards in rude health.

Tom Hawkins played the sort of match that might eventually be looked at as a coming-of-age. James Podsiadly was a commanding presence. Brad Ottens complemented his outstanding ruckwork with an aerial threat when rested forward. He is becoming Mr September.

Steve Johnson played the sort of match that only he can. He was in Stevie J mode most of the night, but especially in the last quarter when he caused all sorts of chaos to the opposition and to himself.

He marked time and again, he tried a torpedo from 60m out that ended somewhere north of the behind post at the city end, he ignored two easy handball options in favour of wheeling about and blind-turning, pirouetting himself into a two-metre kick that swerved out on the full. He was giddy and so were the fans.

Geelong went long throughout: from kick-outs, from centre breaks and especially when heading inside 50. Hawthorn's defensive frailties were on display; the lack of height that everyone thought would hurt them did so, but about 15 rounds after it was predicted.

The best possible diagnosis for Buddy, of course, would be Clarkson's "sore knee". Missing only a week would seem a blessing; missing no matches at all might be a miracle.

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs