The Tigers took it up to their more-fanciedrivals in the first half and trailed by just nine points at half time, butcouldn’t counter the Hawks’ hard running in the second half, which saw themkick 10 goals to three to skip away with the contest.

Sam Mitchell (31 disposals), Shane Crawford(30 possessions) and Jordan Lewis (28 touches) were the prime movers throughthe middle for Hawthorn while Jarryd Roughead (five goals) and Lance Franklin(four goals) were strong targets up forward.

Joel Bowden topped the possessions for theTigers with 34 but Roughead had the defender moved off him after his firstthree majors.

Nathan Brown, Kayne Pettifer and Jay Schulzall booted two goals while Nathan Foley worked hard for his 27 disposals.

Any thoughts the Hawks had of an easy dayat the office against the cellar-dwelling Tigers were quickly dispelled whenMatthew Richardson and Jake King goaled inside the first two minutes of thematch.

Roughead got his side rolling with hisfirst but Richmondwas doing better around the stoppages and led by 18 points midway through thefirst quarter.

A goal to Luke Hodge stopped the Tigers’run as the Hawks worked into the game, but despite a nice goal on the run fromBen McGlynn and Roughead adding his second, Hawthorn trailed by five points atthe first change.

Alastair Clarkson kept his charges in thehuddle long after the Richmondplayers had taken their places for the resumption and he got the response hewas after as they blasted through the first four goals of the quarter.

Roughead was proving a handful for JoelBowden and slotted his third to give the Hawks their first lead of the day,with Sam Mitchell important after a quiet first term. Majors to Crawford andBen Dixon were followed by Roughead’s fourth to blow the margin out to 20 points.

But just when it looked like the Tigers hadfired all their shots, they dug deep with Brown conjuring two goals to slashthe deficit to just two points.

The Richmondforward turned from hero to villain, however, when a 50-metre penalty was awardedagainst him making Lewis’ shot for goal impossible to miss.

The Hawks made their move in the third andturned a nine-point, half-time lead into a 28-point advantage by quarter’s endwith Hawthorn’s tall timber up forward important in the burst.

First-gamer Mitch Thorp showed poise beyondhis years to stroll off to his right and slot the first goal of his career twominutes in, Franklin injected himself with two majors and Roughead added hisfifth.

The Tigers had stuck to the task for themost part, but their intensity dropped noticeably in the last quarter as theHawks clinically finished the job.

Pettifer fired the only goal for Richmond as the Hawks piled on five more with Franklin capping anexcellent second-half display with the last goal of the match.    

HAWTHORN: 4.2, 9.7, 14.10, 19.15 (129)
RICHMOND: 5.1,8.4, 10.6, 11.10 (76)

Goals
Hawthorn: Roughead 5, Franklin 4, McGlynn 2, Crawford, Dixon, Lewis, Thorp,Hodge, Brown, Ladson, Campbell
Richmond: Schulz 2, Brown 2, Pettifer 2, Richardson, King, Edwards, Tuck,Johnson

Best
Hawthorn: Mitchell, Roughead, Franklin, Crawford, Lewis, Guerra, McGlynn
Richmond: Bowden, Newman, King, Johnson, Tuck

Injuries: Nil

Reports: Nil

Umpires: Stevic, Grun, Goldspink

Official crowd: 41,770 at the MCG