HAWTHORN coach Alastair Clarkson believes star forward Lance Franklin will benefit from the light pre-season training he is doing this year as a result of post-season shoulder surgery.

Franklin has been restricted to half of the team's pre-season regime and did litle more than kicking for goals at Friday's training session.

Clarkson told the Herald Sun the fact Franklin was not taking part in contact drills would freshen him up ahead of this season's campaign.

"He has participated in only half the program in terms of everything we have been able to do because he has not been able to do full contact work," Clarkson said.

"But given the nature of the position he plays where there is just so much body contact, it's not such a bad thing.

"He needed to do a lot of it in (the past) three or four pre-seasons because it's such a strong body position that he plays.

"But it's probably a blessing that he's just been held back a little bit from that over this pre-season and been able to focus a lot on his running and other aspects of his game and it should mean that he will go into the season pretty fresh."

Clarkson also explained that he was confident that last year's Coleman Medallist would be capable of handling all the added attention this year.

"It's probably ben 18 months or two years now, I can't possibly imagine that the attention afforded to him an get any greater than it already is and what it has been throughout the course of 2008," Clarkson said.

"He has been able to hold himself pretty well in that regard.

"He is continuing to improve as a player and he still knows that there is lots of areas of his game that he would like to get better and we are going to help him do that."