HAWTHORN coachAlastair Clarkson is taking a 'glass half-full' approach to Lance Franklin'ssecond goalless performance in as many games.
Reigning NAB AFLRising Star Daniel Talia restricted Franklin to no goals on Saturday evening,the second consecutive goalless week for Franklin after he failed to find thebig sticks in his side's three-point win over North Melbourne last week.
The effort against theCrows was only the second time in the superstar's 167-game career that he hasfailed to boot goals in consecutive games.
But Clarkson saidwinning two close encounters against good opposition with little contributionfrom 'Buddy' said good things about the depth of his squad.
"We've played tworeally good sides the last couple of weeks…so we're pleased in the sense thatwe've been able to win a couple of close games without him contributing,"Clarkson said.
"Obviously it’sgoing to help if he starts getting on the scoreboard a bit more, but it's goodthat we can find different avenues.
"(Jack) Gunstonkicked three tonight, so that was pleasing for us."
Franklin has booted537 goals in 167 matches and Clarkson insisted he wouldn't lose sleep becauseof two poor performances from a player of Franklin's ability.
"He's been such aformidable contributor for us in our front half for such a long, long period oftime and for him to have a couple of down days isn't such a bad thing foreither he or us," Clarkson said.
The coach hailedSaturday night's 11-point win over Adelaide an "outstanding" resultfor the club, having repelled several attacks from the Crows including afinal-term charge.
The home side hit thelead early in the last quarter but even with the support of a vocal crowd, theCrows couldn't find a way over the line.
Clarkson admitted thewin was a grind, but said the hard-fought nature of the game only made thevictory more important.
"They're tough tobeat in Adelaide, they've been under the pump, it was Truck's (Ben Rutten)200th game … they would have been really fired up and wanted to give a goodaccount of themselves," he said.
"To win in thosecircumstances, no matter what the margin is an outstanding result for ourclub.
"As happensagainst good sides, it's hard to keep them down for the whole four quarters.
"They played somereally good footy in the second quarter, got themselves back into the contestand then it was a real grind from that point on."