HAWTHORN coach Alastair Clarkson has spoken of his frustration at the unfair treatment he feels star forward Lance Franklin receives from umpires.

Franklin kicked five goals in Saturday's gut-wrenching one-point loss to Geelong, but Clarkson clearly felt last year's Coleman Medallist got the rough end of the stick from the umpires on the day.

Harry Taylor had the job on Franklin for most of the first half before being replaced briefly by Matthew Scarlett, but both spent most of the second half injured, leaving Andrew Mackie to finish the day on the dangerous forward.

"They [Geelong] did remarkably well to have those two guys down and to be able to compete with Franklin in the last part of the game, but he just gets monstered," Clarkson fumed after the match.

"We weren't too pleased with the way that he was monstered today.

"There are so many 'tiggy touchwood' free kicks that are given in the middle of the ground and you say 'gee that could have been a free kick or it couldn't [have been]' and then more obvious ones at one end of the ground just aren't paid.

"So that's very, very frustrating and we need to work through that with the umpiring department to try and rationalise why Buddy has to earn his free kicks in such a tough manner.

"But we'll work through that with Jeff [Gieschen] and Rowan [Sawers] and see what comes out of it."

Clarkson refused to be drawn on whether he had previously sought clarification on the treatment of Franklin from the umpiring department, but added he felt empathy for his star in the circumstances.

"I think any player gets frustrated when they get held and that sort of stuff and they can't have their usual attack on the footy," he said.

"But this isn't the forum to address it, we'll [do that] with Jeff and Rowan throughout the course of the week."

The umpires for Saturday's match were Ray Chamberlain, Scott Jeffery and Shane McInerney who awarded 22 free kicks to the Cats and 18 to Hawthorn.