Hawthorn squared their win-loss ledger and sent an ominous warning to the rest of the AFL top eight with Saturday's 47-point win over Adelaide.

Luke Hodge and Cyril Rioli led a well-balanced team performance in Hawthorn's fifth-straight win, 19.10 (124) to 11.11 (77), which leaves them with a 6-6 record.

The Hawks' opening 10 minutes of the final term at Launceston's Aurora Stadium will be of particular concern to their rivals.

In the Tasmanian winter chill, they ran red-hot.

They smashed the Crows out of the centre, kicking four unanswered goals and turning a tight contest into a cakewalk.

"Coaches like to take some credit for what might have been said, but I can't even remember what I did say, to be fair," Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson said of his three-quarter time address.

"We became really dominant out of the centre bounce for the first five or six minutes in the last quarter and split the game open.

"I can't take too much credit for what happened in the first five minutes, but that patch was some of the best footy we've played for some time."

Hodge, Rioli, Lance Franklin and Jarryd Roughead all kicked three goals apiece in the win.

Hawthorn started well, leading by 29 points at quarter-time, but the lowly Crows have improved in the last month and they worked their way back into the match.

Adelaide trailed by only 13 points during the third term and should have been closer - key forward Kurt Tippett finished the game with four goals, but he also missed two sitters.

The momentum shifted late in the third quarter, first when the Adelaide defence were too slow in trying to clear the ball and gifted Hawthorn a turnover goal.

Then, just before three-quarter time the Hawks were able to kick long into a vacant attack and Rioli pounced, using his speed to run into the open goal.

Hawthorn had a 20-point lead going into the final term and Adelaide's chance had gone.

"Quarters two and three we were chasing and hung in there, made a bit of ground - the last quarter was disastrous on the scoreboard, but our first quarter was poor as well," said Crows coach Neil Craig.

While Craig is determined the Crows, who are 3-9, will not just drop away for the rest of the season, Clarkson can look at the second half of the season with confidence.

Their next opponents on Friday night will be arch-rivals Essendon, who easily beat the Hawks in round six when they were struggling.

"We just have to keep on winning - the last time we played against Essendon, we were terrible," Clarkson said.

"We've been a lot better since then, I might add, but we need to be if we're going to knock off the Bombers."

Craig has no doubt that Hawthorn can cause real trouble for teams above them on the ladder.

"If they can keep their team together and keep those guys on the track ... they have a lot of premiership players in that side, if they can keep them together, they will be a pretty powerful unit," Craig said.

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