HAWTHORN chief executive Stuart Fox has called for witnesses to step forward as the club endeavours to find the fan who racially vilified Lance Franklin during the Hawks' match against West Coast at Aurora Stadium on Saturday.

Franklin was disappointed and shocked at the racial abuse directed his way during the game and Fox said that the club and the AFL were intent on finding the culprit.

Fox doubts the man in question is a member of the club, but said that membership would certainly be revoked and a ban would be handed out. There would also be police action if he can be identified.

"It's not going to be easy to find the offender, but we've had a look at some footage," Fox said from Waverley Park on Tuesday.

"It will certainly be hard to find him [from that alone], but if anyone was there we'd encourage them to call into the club or the AFL because then we'd be in a position to take some action.

"I would have hoped that someone out there has heard it and we'll try and isolate which bay it happened in. There's got to be someone out there … because Buddy heard it very, very clearly and it caught his attention during play.

"Until we can find the offender we really can't do too much."

Fox said the club had already initiated talks with the management of Aurora Stadium with a view to implementing a similar system to the one employed by the MCG, which gives supporters the option to report anti-social behaviour via text message.

Franklin is said to be disappointed for the families and young children who may have been within earshot of the offender, but is keen to move on from the incident.

Fox said it was important that the Hawks take a firm stance on the issue on his behalf.

"It's an industry issue, it's a Hawthorn issue and it's one that we wanted to support Buddy on as well," he said.

"We've got a number of indigenous players in our team and it's an important issue, so we just want to stamp it out. We're not only representing Hawthorn I think we're representing the AFL, our industry and society.

"We've made some big inroads into this issue over many years and it just felt like we had a little backward step on the weekend."