Despite his season-long absence from the AFL, Kangaroos full-forward Nathan Thompson loomed large at the Telstra Dome on Sunday night.

His teammates' inability to adjust without him on the field was critical as Hawthorn beat them by 21 points, 13.13 (91) to 10.10 (70).

Especially during the first half, when the 'Roos could have put their opposition under more pressure, they kicked the ball too often deep to the "hot spot" in front of goal.

That works fine when Thompson is charging out of the goalsquare - not so productively when he is out for the year with the knee reconstruction he suffered during the pre-season.

The Kangaroos remain winless after a third straight match where they were competitive for much of the game, but lacked the finesse to score the four points.

"That's probably been the fallout of the three games - we didn't take our opportunities, our kicking the ball inside our forward 50 wasn't that flash," said coach Dean Laidley.

"We just didn't take our opportunities, it was pretty disappointing.

"I'm not thinking 'I wish I had Nathan Thompson there' - I'm looking at what we can do with what we have on the ground.

"Unfortunately, we don't have Nathan Thompson and you know what? We still have 19 games to go and I wouldn't imagine we're going to have him in any one of those."

After a dour first half of players constantly slipping over, turnovers and silly free kicks, Hawthorn took control in the third term with five goals to two.

They extended the margin to 29 points midway through the final quarter before three Kangaroos goals made it a tight 10-point game.

But "Buddy Love" then decided the match, when the superbly-nicknamed Lance Franklin kicked his third goal of the game.

Hawks midfielder Sam Mitchell then also goalled to cap a best-afield performance in the midfield.

"That was a hard day - for players, coaches and probably at different times spectators, too," said Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson.

"It's good to get the points, we still scored 13 goals, but we didn't look like we were going to get anywhere near that at one point in the game.

"We just knew we had to run so hard to actually create some opportunities for ourselves and that's what we said to our guys at halftime - we're not to going to win this game if we just stay stagnant."

Clarkson pointed out his team was missing five senior players, with Chance Bateman, Joel Smith, Trent Croad, Tim Clarke and Richie Vandenberg unavailable.

As the 'Roos failed to find a big-marking forward, Mark Williams was vital for the Hawks with his four goals, including two from tough angles.

Williams' importance made the Kangaroos start Drew Petrie as a loose man in defence.

But Laidley defended his tactics and denied he had been too negative in the first half.

"Don't fall into us going negative - we're not going to go negative by any stretch of the imagination," Laidley said.

Midfielder Daniel Harris was outstanding for the Kangaroos, but Shannon Grant picked the worst possible time to produce a shocker - his 200th game for the club.

Laidley described it as probably the worst game he had seen Grant play, adding the veteran was not carrying an injury.

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP