Watch highlights from the Qualifying Final win in the player above.

Hawthorn 4.6 9.10 15.13 20.15 (135)
Collingwood 2.3 7.4 12.7 15.7 (97)

Goals: Hawthorn - Franklin 4, Savage 2, Hale 2, Breust 2, Rioli 2, Gunston 2, Hodge 2, Smith, Puopolo, Ellis, Roughead
Collingwood - Cloke 6, Krakouer 4, Wellingham 2, Sinclair, Shaw, Dawes

Best: Hawthorn - Sewell, Mitchell, Gibson, Breust, Franklin, Ellis
Collingwood - Pendlebury, Swan, Krakouer, Cloke, Sinclair

Crowd: 84,625 at the MCG

Hawthorn has earned the right to play on preliminary final weekend after defeating Collingwood by 38 points in the Qualifying Final on Friday night.

As far as finals matches are concerned, Friday night’s clash was everything we expected and more, with tackles, bumps, commitment, passion and desire was on show from both sides.

It was, however, Hawthorn’s ability to use the ball better than Collingwood and force turnovers through pressure that was the difference.

From the outset, Hawthorn’s disposal efficiency was better than Collingwood’s sitting at 68 per cent to 63 in a critical opening quarter.

While the contest was otherwise even across all other areas including clearances (12-11), tackles (23-26), inside 50s (16-15) and contested possessions (49-45) it was the ability of the Hawks to release a teammate in space with precision passing that earned the Hawks a 15-point lead at the first break.

The Hawks managed 55 uncontested possessions to Collingwood’s 36, illustrating that the spread of Hawthorn was much better than Collingwood.

Consequently, the Hawks were able to put Collingwood’s defence under pressure and register 10 scoring shots from its 16 entries.

The second quarter was a topsy-turvy one, as Collingwood got its game going, finding space much easier than Hawthorn.

Collingwood laid 20 tackles to 15, but it was their spread and running game that hurt the Hawks. It led to 48 unconctested possessions to 32, and seven marks inside forward 50 and Travis Cloke and Andrew Krakouer made the Hawks pay.

Chris Tarrant had control of Lance Franklin for most of the first half, but the Hawks spearhead grabbed momentum back for the Hawks with a crucial goal on the half time siren.

That goal was on the back of the Hawthorn structure from Collingwood’s defensive kick-ins, as the Magpies were unable to get the ball out of their defensive half.

The momentum was with the Hawks at the beginning of the third term, but Collingwood would not hand full control of the match to the Hawks.

The Hawks outtackled the Magpies though, 20-14, and were able to outnumber Collingwood at the contest.

Therefore, when the ball spilled free, the Hawks were able to gather it and release it to runners such as Isaac Smith and Luke Breust who used their pace at critical times to catch out the Collingwood defence.

Breust’s run in particular, at crucial times to break away from the pack and send the Hawks forward resulted in a number of scoring opportunities.

In the end, it was Hawthorn’s precise kicking, relentless pressure and star power up forward that was the difference.

The Hawks had 11 individual goal kickers compared to Collingwood’s six. As has been the case for most of the year, the Hawks didn’t rely on Franklin to kick the majority of its score.

The relentless grunt work of Sam Mitchell and Brad Sewell was damaging, finishing with 18 pivotal clearances between them. The Hawks won the overall clearance count by 11 (50-39) and 11-7 in the final quarter.

Despite Collingwood’s Scott Pendlebury (30 disposals), Dayne Beams (30) and Dane Swan (29) getting their fair shar of the ball, it was Hawthorn’s evenness of contribution that was the difference. For Collingwood, it was too much left to too few.

For Hawthorn, Josh Gibson was outstanding in defence, playing his usual zone-off and comer third man up role with aplomb. He finished the match with 16 spoils to be a vital “chop out” to fellow defender Ryan Schoenmakers who had his hands full with Cloke.

The performance too, of the three inclusions - Xavier Ellis, Thomas Murphy and Shane Savage who came in for Brent Guerra, Clinton Young and Jordan Lewis was pivotal for Hawthorn.

As previously mentioned, the evenness of Hawthorn’s performance was critical in claiming the 38-point win and a path straight through to a home Preliminary Final.

Full forward Franklin too, wore down Tarrant in the end to finish with four goals and 18 disposals.

What Alastair Clarkson said:
“It was a tough game - that's what you expect from finals.

“Our focus now just goes to looking after our bodies and getting ourselves right, and trying to observe whichever opponent it might be that we'll play in the prelim.

"We've got a mission as a footy club to try and salute at the end of the year, and you just play every game as hard as you can, and hopefully you win, and then very quickly you move on."