While debate continues as to the impact Lance Franklin’s contract situation is having on his season, there was no dispute as to who Hawthorn’s number one forward was against Greater Western Sydney in Launceston on Saturday.

Jarryd Roughead booted a game-high five goals for the Hawks as they eased to an 83-point win over the Giants, simultaneously exhibiting his class and again proving that Franklin isn’t the only star forward at the club.

In a match coach Alastair Clarkson described as a ‘lockdown, dull affair’, Roughead racked up 22 disposals and booted 5.2 to be the leading goal kicker on a day where the Hawks had 13 players boot majors.

“It was a really good spread once again and that’s been a key platform for a variety of forward options for us,” Clarkson said post-match, going on to praise Roughead for his efforts during the past year in coming back from a long-term injury sustained midway through the 2011 season.

“He (Roughead) played some pretty good footy for us last year,” Clarkson said. “He had to play a different role and was coming of an Achilles tendon injury which was a pretty severe injury.”

When asked whether his big forward was back to the stellar form that characterised his 2008 Premiership season, Clarkson wouldn’t commit an opinion – but did suggest the 26-year-old’s newfound versatility was a huge boon for the club.

“He’s been a very good player for us for a long time… all I know is he’s playing well at the moment but he’s played well for us for a long period of time at our club.

“We really rate him as a player and value his contributions as one of our leaders and one of our leading players.

“What he’s probably added to his game over the last two years is the ability to play in the ruck, the ability to go into the midfield and mix it up and that’s made him a really important and valuable contributor for us.”

With 21 goals for the season, Roughead now leads the Hawthorn goal-kicking and with fixtures against the Gold Coast Suns and Melbourne coming up ahead of the Round 11 bye, may fancy his chances of adding to that tally.

Clarkson warned, however, that the Hawks had plenty of work to do following the win over GWS and wouldn’t be taking the Suns fixture lightly.
“Their midfield is one of the more potent midfields running around and they’re in pretty good form.

“We need to continue to rehearse some of the things in our game. You’d think that our game worked pretty smoothly today, having an 83-point win, but there were aspects of our game, particularly in the third quarter, that we weren’t really pleased with.

“All we can do is keep refining those things.”