Hawthorn forward Lance Franklin continued to torment Adelaide as the Hawks handed out what Crows coach Neil Craig described as a valuable lesson at Aurora Stadium.

The Hawks won 17.12 (114) to 10.10 (70), to celebrate 100-game milestones for Chance Bateman and Campbell Brown, with Bateman playing a starring midfield role as he became the first indigenous player to reach that mark in the brown and gold.

Franklin booted six goals, to follow up his match-winning seven-goal haul against the same side in last year's elimination final thriller at Telstra Dome.

He now has 21 goals after four games this season, but while Craig predicted there were more big goal hauls in store for him this year, he was more impressed with the systematic way the unbeaten Hawks dismantled his side.

"It's a great lesson for our playing group that ... that level of expertise exists, because they're very well drilled, so it's something for us to aim for," Craig said.

He admitted there were echoes of the Crows' playing style from their impressive 2005 and 2006 seasons in the Hawks' ability to congest the middle of the ground and prevent Adelaide finding the shortest path to goal.

"They do it really well and they do it religiously and they do it systematically, it's all credit to their playing group and their coaching group," Craig said.

Both sides found it tough to move the ball fluently into attack in the early stages, making scoring difficult, but Franklin's four first-half goals allowed the Hawks to build a three-goal buffer by the long break.

He proved too mobile for Ben Rutten and bombed in three goals with set shots from 50m or beyond, as well as another from closer range.

The Hawks were able to break the game open in the third quarter, their defensive pressure, hard running and precise kicking wearing down the Crows, who were coming off a gruelling win over Port Adelaide last round.

They kicked five of the first six goals in the third term to open up a 44-point lead.

Bateman was brilliant during that period, racking up a dozen touches for the quarter, most of them telling, opening with a clever left foot goal on the run, setting up Mark Williams for the next and making several bursting runs out of the centre square.

Williams finished with three goals in his first game back since round four last season, while former skipper Shane Crawford played his first game for the year after suspension.

Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson said the win, as well as last week's victory over North Melbourne, were important markers of his team's progress, given they are two of the sides that have caused Hawthorn the most trouble in recent years.

"We're convinced as a footy club that we're heading in the right direction, we're starting to close the gap on those sides," he said.

He said the milestones of Brown and Bateman provided great inspiration.

"They're nearly the spirit of our footy club, those two guys, along with (Luke) Hodge and (Sam) Mitchell and those types of guys in our leadership group," Clarkson said.

"For the other 20 guys to rally like they did said an enormous amount about those two guys."

Mitchell (calf) and Tim Boyle (hip) were late withdrawals from Sunday's side, but both are expected back next round.

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