Hawthorn's Lance Franklin enjoyed his biggest goal haul in three seasons as a record 165-point AFL win over Port Adelaide gave the star Hawk and his team a valuable shot of pre-finals confidence.

While Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse has been bemoaning the impact of blowout results on the competition, Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson was all positive about Saturday's crushing 31.11 (197) to 5.2 (32) MCG victory.

Franklin booted eight goals straight - his biggest haul since his Coleman Medal-winning 2008 season - to surge clear of Richmond's Jack Riewoldt in the battle for this year's award.

Classy speedster Cyril Rioli kicked six majors, to battle Franklin for best afield honours, as the pair each singlehandedly outscored the Power.

It was Hawthorn's biggest ever win and the Power's biggest ever loss, Port setting a new low mark just a week after their previous greatest defeat, by 138 points to Collingwood.

It was the 10th triple-figure margin in the AFL this season and the fifth in four rounds, but the first for the Hawks, delighting Clarkson.

"We're not like Collingwood and Geelong, who have been doing that for most of the season," he said.

"So for us to have a convincing victory, more importantly just be really solid throughout the four quarters and win every quarter, I think that was a key goal for us going into the game."

Clarkson was unsure what would prove more valuable in the lead-in to the finals, Saturday's free-scoring win or grinding interstate victories over Fremantle and North Melbourne in foul weather over the previous two rounds.

But he believes that having done both will boost his side's confidence.

He said Rioli's career-best haul and Franklin's strong marking and superb kicking would do the two star forwards' self-belief plenty of good.

"We had (15) goal scorers today, so despite the fact that Buddy and Cyril had good days, it was good that we had a really good spread, we had a lot of midfielders, even halfbacks getting involved on the scoreboard, so that's really important for us."

The one glimmer of light for Port was promising debuts from John Butcher, who took several strong marks in attack, and Tom Jonas, who battled extremely hard in a tough assignment on Hawks skipper Luke Hodge.

But coach Matt Primus said players had a lot to answer for, after failing to produce the type of response needed to the previous round's humiliation from Collingwood.

"We can't afford to not bring the right attitude every week, no matter if we're at home or away and the last two weeks have smelt a bit of that," he said.

"We've got to make sure that doesn't happen, because the club needs a real honest effort from every player and every coach and everyone involved in the footy club every week and at the moment we haven't had that."

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