Hawthorn have lost star forward Lance Franklin to a hamstring injury for Friday night’s AFL clash with St Kilda.
Franklin will join captain Luke Hodge, who has a thumb injury, on the sidelines for Etihad Stadium match.
Coach Alastair Clarkson said on Thursday Franklin’s complaint was believed to be minor, with scans not revealing the damage.
But he noted they also thought the same thing last year, when Franklin played the round 15 game against Greater Western Sydney despite hamstring soreness, and he ended up missing six matches.
“That’s probably why we’re being a bit more cautious with it this time around,” Clarkson told reporters on Thursday.
“Last year he had a very slight incident in the game before the GWS game.
“He thought he was okay and we thought he was okay too but then he aggravated the hamstring in that GWS game and then missed a fair period of the season.
“He’s obviously an important player for us and we want to make sure he’s there for us at the right time of year.”
Clarkson said Franklin had a run on Thursday morning to test the hamstring but didn’t cope well enough.
“He and Hodgey will both miss this week unfortunately,” he said.
“But hopefully they’ll both be back for next week’s game against Collingwood.”
Clarkson expected a big improvement on last weekend’s 41-point loss to Richmond, by far the biggest of the Hawks’ three losses this season.
The coach said his side failed to hunt the ball with their normal endeavour against the Tigers, but he believed it was a one-off and wasn’t reading too much into that performance.
“We know it’s certainly not a pattern in terms of the way that we play because we’re 15-3 for a reason, we’ve been a good side for a long period of time,” he said.
“We’ll take some learnings out of the game but by and large our effort and endeavour needs to be at the level we require it to be and if it is, we’re a really good football side.”
Clarkson said critics saying the Hawks’ midfield wasn’t quick enough had short memories, given the way they thumped Essendon a week earlier.
He said Hawthorn had players with pace, such as Cyril Rioli, Isaac Smith, Bradley Hill, Luke Breust and Paul Puopolo, but the more important factor against the Tigers was mental approach.