Hawthorn's thrashing of a dismal Melbourne also had the extra bonus of extra rest for their one remaining fit and experienced AFL ruckman Brent Renouf at the MCG on Saturday.

The Hawks won 17.15 (117) to 8.13 (61), after leading by as much as 80 points 10 minutes into the third quarter, at which stage the uncompetitive Demons had scored just one goal.

Hawthorn had the luxury of letting Renouf, whose fitness is vital to their prospects with fellow ruckmen Simon Taylor, Max Bailey and Wayde Skipper all out injured, sit out almost the whole final term.

That allowed the Demons the small consolation of winning the quarter and doubling their goal tally.

"We're just trying to protect him, we're not really well off for rucks at the minute, we had a pretty significant lead," Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson said.

"It's not like we're missing some support for him for one or two weeks, some of the guys that are out of the game with injury at the moment for us are going to be out for six, eight, 12 weeks, so we've got to protect him a little bit.

"He was pretty lionhearted with the work that he did today."

Clarkson said Renouf would be "good as gold" for the much tougher task of facing reigning premiers Geelong on Easter Monday.

The Hawks, who had a host of absentees, will welcome back Lance Franklin and Chance Bateman from suspension for that clash, while Cyril Rioli is likely to return from a groin injury.

But, despite also having Shaun Burgoyne, Brad Sewell and Clinton Young out injured, they outclassed Melbourne, who gave little indication they will improve on their wooden spoon form of the past two seasons.

The Hawks scored the first eight goals before the Demons notched their first, almost 18 minutes into the second quarter.

Luke Hodge led the way with a superb game in the midfield, with great support from Jordan Lewis, captain Sam Mitchell, Rick Ladson and Xavier Ellis.

Key forward Jarryd Roughead ensured Franklin's absence was not sorely felt, as a strong attacking target.

They were also well served by some recruits.

Half-forward Carl Peterson, who spent 2007 on Richmond's list, then a year in Darwin, and last year on the Hawks' rookie list, finally made his AFL debut and impressed in the first half, although a knock to the head consigned him to the bench for much of the second.

Ex-Brisbane small forward Rhan Hooper combined strong tackling with two goals, while former North Melbourne defender Josh Gibson was particularly assured in his Hawks debut.

The Demons had no real standouts, although Jack Trengove and Tom Scully, last November's top two national draft picks, did enough in their AFL debuts to give supporters hope of some light at the end of the tunnel.

But coach Dean Bailey acknowledged the club could not simply write off the loss as another learning experience.

"I'm not going to sit here and say 'Oh well, that's the way it is,'" Bailey said.

"We expect to improve, there's no question about that and we expect to be more competitive than what we were today."

He said the Hawks were very good, but Melbourne allowed them to be.

"Our pressure on them wasn't high enough."

The Demons hope Colin Sylvia returns from injury for next Saturday's clash with Collingwood, but Bailey said there were also likely to be other changes.

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