HAWTHORN coach Alastair Clarkson hinted at the potential for versatile recruit James Frawley to spend more time in the forward half following the former Demon's three-goal outing against the Lions in Launceston on Saturday.
Playing his 13th match for the Hawks, Frawley was one of 12 goal kickers for the Hawks as they romped to a 72-point win over the Lions on a breezy afternoon at Aurora Stadium.
Despite being jumped early by a fired-up Lions outfit, the Hawks piled on 10.1 in a dominant second quarter that saw Frawley and Jack Gunston boot five goals between them to split the game open after the reigning premiers had gone to the first break 17 points in arrears.
"The conditions were really tough and to kick 21 goals in those conditions was a good performance," Clarkson said, going on to suggest that Frawley's move forward could well be a tactic the Hawks use again as they strive for a third consecutive flag.
"It'll be a little bit horses for courses," he said.
"We didn't feel like the match-ups in their side, only playing (Jonathan) Freeman and (Luke) McGuane as their tall forwards, we just didn’t think there was a suitable match-up in the front half for us.
"We like to have the flexibility of Frawley being able to swing from one end of the ground to the other.
"He did that quite frequently at Melbourne and he hasn't done it as much for us but we'll just see how it goes over the course of the next three or four weeks.
"He got good exposure down there, kicked three, and was another tall target for us that made us pretty competitive in the air in the front part of the ground."
Gunston finished with four goals while the impressive Jarryd Roughead also managed three as the Hawks totally outgunned the Lions after quarter-time to stroll to their 15th consecutive win in Tasmania.
With next week's opponent, Carlton, hammered by the Giants on Saturday afternoon, the Hawks could be forgiven for thinking ahead to the first week of finals footy but Clarkson was quick to point out that the club's focus would be the same as ever ahead of their round 23 clash.
"We just look right throughout the course of the year to the four points and trying to secure that and we'll do that again," he said.
And while he gave no indication how close former skipper Sam Mitchell had been to overcoming the illness that saw him miss the weekend trip to Tasmania, Clarkson seemed hopeful his midfield general would be back on deck to face the Blues.
"Some of these things can be a bit of a sniffle and they bounce out of it pretty quickly, particularly a guy as proud as 'Mitch', he doesn't like missing games of footy," Clarkson said.
"I'll try and give him a call tomorrow and see how he's feeling and hopefully he'll be right for next week."
Clarkson also made mention of the strength of character within the club, particularly in regard to assistant coach Brett Ratten's match-day return following the recent death of his son, Cooper.
"Our club has had to endure a fair amount of adversity and, to be honest, a lot of clubs do," he said.
"A lot of people make up your organisation and we're not immune to tragedy and things going on in our lives as well and whether that’s illness or in the tragic circumstances we've seen in the last couple of weeks with 'Ratts', and we've had to deal with a significant amount of adversity.
"Our philosophy, whilst we don't mean to be callous about it, but it really is one solider goes and another comes in to replace.
"It allows our system to continue to be reasonably productive in times of adversity and that's what we've seen in the last couple of weeks."
