Clarkson frank on Franklin
The Hawthorn faithful were singing the praises of Lance Franklin on Sunday after he bagged five goals to help seal the NAB Cup encounter against the Demons, but
The Hawthorn faithful were singing the praises of Lance Franklin on Sunday after he bagged five goals to help seal the NAB Cup encounter against the Demons, but Alastair Clarkson wasn't about to read from the 'Book of Buddy' after the match.Ever since his arrival at the club, the Hawthorn coach has been at pains to keep his precocious young talent grounded and he had the lid firmly fastened after the Hawks' 24-point come-from-behind win."Everyone else will be excited about it. He's a very, very talented player for us - it's exciting for our supporters and club that we've got a player of his talent in our club - but you can't just always look at the end result," Clarkson explained."If you look at every one of those goals that he kicked, it was the superb work of the midfield that turned the ball over."He acknowledges that, he knows that he got on the end of some really good work from the midfield and his job when that happens is to just execute his skill really well."He was able to nail those goals at important stages of the game early in the last quarter which was so important for us, but he's very well positioned to know that the midfielder is his bread and butter in terms of helping him kick goals."In trouble at 27 points down late in the third quarter, Clarkson was pleased with the spirit of his charges as they fought their way back into the match and credited some soul searching during the main break for the resurgence."We addressed a few things around our stoppages - they just hunted the ball a hell of a lot better than we did early in the game - but we addressed that at half-time and our attack on the footy was a hell of a lot better in the second half and we found that we got into the contest a bit more," he said."We started to win a couple of lucky breaks because of our intensity around the ball and we were able to get up and going. Luke Hodge and Jordan Lewis going into the midfield in the third quarter was significant for us."