HAWTHORN will be without star forward Lance Franklin for the fourth time this season in tonight’s Qualfying Final at the MCG tonight, but they’re more than confident of being able to kick a winning score.

The Hawks have won 11 of their past 12 matches without the star forward since 2010 and kicked an average of 127.9 points in his absence.

This year, the Hawks have been far less reliant on the two-time Coleman Medal winner, with fellow star forwards Jarryd Roughead, Jack Gunston and Luke Breust all proving dangerous around goals.

The quartet are the best combination in the AFL, with Hawthorn kicking more goals that any other team and the four have also each kicked over 30 goals - the most at any side.

Obviously the Hawks would love to have their star forward at centre half forward for tonight’s massive Qualifying Final, but the reality is, it’s not Buddy or nothing at the Hawks.

“No doubt you’d love to have Buddy there because he’s such a great player, but what the group has done all year is played their role and supported each other,” Assistant Coach Brett Ratten told hawthornfc.com.au

“Whether Buddy is in the team or out of the team, it’s about the contribution of our six forwards and if you go and play as a forward, your contribution towards the team is important and I think we’ve done that really well this year.

“When you look at inside 50 targets, goals scored and the spread of the workload, I think it’s more about the group than anything.

“We are going to take Buddy out this week, but we’ll put somebody else in there and his role and responsibility will be just as high as what Buddy’s was.

“We’ll have some firepower down there with ‘Roughy’, Breust, Cyril, Gunston and Hale will be down there more than last week - it won’t just be one player that does the job, it’ll be the group that gets it done.”

The equation of Hawthorn without Franklin is different too for Sydney and more specifically, defender Ted Richards who has enjoyed intriguing battles with the star forward in the past.

Richards will now, more than likely find his way onto 2013 Coleman medallist Jarryd Roughead, a player usually minded by full back, Heath Grundy.

“It’ll throw something different and it will do is throw Ted Richards, who’s probably gone to ‘Bud’ the last few times, he’ll have a different assignment and then usually the snowball effect happens,” Ratten said.

“Grundy will probably go to someone else and there’s a real domino effect.

“It will change the dynamics of it and it’ll be interesting to see how it plays out.”

One player who will spend more time inside 50 for Hawthorn is David Hale who shouldered the majority of the ruck duties in the absence of Max Bailey last week.

But with Bailey back in the side after having a rest for the final home-and-away round, Hale will play a crucial role inside 50 for the Hawks.

“The combination of Bailey and Hale has been really good for us this year,” Ratten said.

“I thought Hale was pretty good on the day last week but I thought Mumford was very good as well.

“It’ll really help Hale with Max there because it’s the two big guys versus their two big guys whereas Haley shouldered most of the work last week.”

Bailey will be up against in-form Swans ruckman Shane Mumford, who was one of Sydney’s most influential players last Friday night.

Mumford had 41 hit outs last week, but only eight of those were to the advantage of a Swans teammate.

All up, Sydney had 12 hit outs to advantage from 56 hit outs, to Hawthorn’s nine from 33 and Hawthorn won the clearances 44 to 41.

Ratten says the Hawks midfielder will again need to be on their toes if Mumford is on top in the ruck.

“The thing is, the opposition ruckman, are they hitting the ball to their players and what sort of drive are they getting from that?” he said.

“I thought our boys at ground level really nullified some of the influence Mumford had at the stoppages, which is a credit to them.

“Things will change though, and this week there might be some different hit zones or strategies that might be brought out this week so we’ll have to be on our toes and if we’re not winning the hit outs, we’ll have to nullify them at ground level.”