HAWTHORN coach Alastair Clarkson remains tight-lipped on who may fill the void left by suspended forward Lance Franklin, but believes his side can still kick a winning score in its must-win clash with Essendon on Saturday.

Clarkson said he could not recall another time in his five-year tenure when he had to consider the absence of both Franklin and Jarryd Roughead.

With his appeal against a two-match suspension dismissed on Thursday night, Franklin failed to train at Waverley on Friday morning. Roughead continues to nurse a knee injury that until this week had ended his season.

Hawthorn plays Essendon in a virtual elimination final at the MCG, with the winner to secure eight spot and at least another week of football in 2009.

Clarkson said whatever combination of forwards he fielded for the game wouldn't be revealed until the opening bounce.

"When you haven't got Franklin, Roughead and Mark Williams, everything we do is going be a surprise for us all tomorrow," he said.

Clarkson said defender Thomas Murphy had come into the 22 in place of Franklin but that the make-up of the side was still to be determined.

Backman Matt Suckling, ruckman Simon Taylor and midfielder Travis Tuck are the Hawks' emergencies, while Brent Renouf has been named at full-forward.

"The guys are pretty resilient and they will just get on with the job," Clarkson said. "There is little other option for them.

"We started the season without a defence and it looks like we'll finish the season without a forward line.

"We'll have six guys up there that who give it a good crack. It will be a different sort of structure but we reckon we can kick enough goals to be able to win the game."

Hawthorn has been left confused after Franklin failed in his attempt to overturn a ban for rough conduct against Richmond's Ben Cousins last weekend.

Clarkson said Hawthorn saw the Franklin case as having an important principle.

"We thought it was a battle worth fighting, not just for Lance Franklin and our football club, but for football in general. But it wasn't to be," he said.

"There has been a fair bit [said] over the past couple of years [about] the bump. We just need to find out whether there is, in actual fact, the need to have the bump in the game at all."

Clarkson highlighted that Franklin had felt both sides of what he termed 'reasonable contact' during the victory over the Tigers.

"We had a situation with Lance in the last part of the game when he was smacked in the chops and that is deemed to be reasonable contact," Clarkson said.

"He has got blood coming from his lip and that is deemed to be reasonable contact. Then he lays the hip and shoulder which is deemed to be reasonable contact as well and he gets suspended for it for two weeks.

"These sorts of things come up from time to time that have us all raise our eyebrows. That's why we took it as far as we did. We'll now address it with the AFL."

Clarkson said he wasn't angry about the suspension but was concerned about where the ruling was taking the game.