Fremantle coach Ross Lyon says his team can’t afford to divert too many resources in trying to halt star Hawthorn pair Lance Franklin and Cyril Rioli in Saturday’s AFL clash at Aurora Stadium.

Franklin has booted 8.13 in the past fortnight to inspire the Hawks to back-to-back wins, while Rioli has returned 16.5 in seven games this year.

In-form Fremantle defender Luke McPharlin is set to get first crack on McPharlin, while Zac Dawson and Michael Johnson are other options should the 196cm Hawk break the shackles.

Lyon will consider assigning tagger Ryan Crowley the job on Rioli.

But with the Hawks boasting a glut of other potential match-winners, Lyon said curbing the influence of Franklin and Rioli was only one piece of the puzzle.

“They’re going to kick goals, it’s a matter of how many,” Lyon said before his team flew out of Perth on Thursday.

“Obviously they’re very talented players, but I think if you get caught up focusing on two players you forget about the rest and it gets quite difficult.”

Dockers defender Adam McPhee has been ruled out of the clash with a calf injury, but skipper Matthew Pavlich made the trip to Tasmania after overcoming last week’s knock to the knee against Port Adelaide.

Ninth-placed Hawthorn remain premiership favourites despite their unconvincing 4-3 start to the year, and Lyon described the 2008 premiers as being in pretty good nick following recent wins over St Kilda and Melbourne.

“As Alastair (Clarkson) said, they’ve only had two bad quarters, so that’s pretty good form,” Lyon said.

“We’re a developing, emerging group, and we want to keep challenging ourselves. We think it’s a really important game for us.”