hawthorn v geelong, page-2

HAWTHORN full-forward Lance Franklin will miss a fourth consecutive match after failing to prove his fitness for Friday night's blockbuster against Geelong.??

Franklin, who has been out since round 16 with a hamstring strain, was hopeful of returning against the Cats, but didn't train with his teammates at Waverley Park on Thursday morning.??

Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson said the three-time All Australian had been ruled out after a running session earlier in the day.

"He won't play this week," Clarkson said.

"He's nearly there, but we just want to make sure that he's completely over this little niggle, and we think that'll probably be next week if all goes well.

"He did some running this morning, but he would have needed to have done everything as well as what he possibly could to get himself up, and he just wasn't as comfortable as we would have liked him to be.

"But we're really hopeful he'll be right next week."

Clarkson said the showdown with the Cats would be a good chance to see how much his team had improved this season.

"We were really competitive as a club last year, but probably the whole football world knew that Geelong and Collingwood were the better two sides in the competition," Clarkson said.

"This year we're wanting to test whether or not we've made up some ground.

"The ladder positions at the current time would suggest we have, but our clashes with Geelong haven't suggested that yet, so we need to get a scalp in that regard, and hopefully that's tomorrow night."

The 2008 premiership coach also played down the importance of recent results between the clubs, with Geelong having won the past eight straight.

"The big difference is that the sides are just so different," Clarkson said.

"We're a very different side to the side that played even in round two of this year.

"So we don't put any great weight on it."??Franklin still leads the Coleman Medal race with 51 goals, ahead of three players on 47 - Fremantle captain Matthew Pavlich, Richmond's Jack Riewoldt and North Melbourne's Drew Petrie.