Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson has praised the professionalism and perseverance of spearhead Lance Franklin after the full forward overcame bone bruising in his right knee to kick four goals in the 36-point semi-final win over Sydney at the MCG on Friday night.
While admitting Franklin had not been the Hawks' most dominant or effective player on the night, with three of his majors coming in the final term, Clarkson said there was never a doubt in the Coleman Medallist's mind that he would play after scans cleared him of structural damage to the knee last Saturday.
"He convinced himself he was going to play as soon as he had the scans that said all the structures in his knee were fine," the coach said.
"We weren't so certain. Like the general supporter who watched the game last week, it looked very awkward and it didn't look to promising."
"It took until Thursday for him to convince us."
Clarkson insisted there was no risk in playing Franklin with the injury, saying the Hawks had done tests on the spearhead during the week, including running test on Thursday morning where he convinced the medical staff and Clarkson he was right to go.
"He wasn't inhibited by the knee at all and we didn't jab the knee. Under no circumstances were we going to put a needle into him," he said.
"He had to do a whole series of tests, nearly every day in a sense to see how it was coming along."
"Full credit to Buddy. In some cases, it's good enough to get yourself ready to play in the sense you are fit enough, but then the mental burden of preparing yourself has been forgotten a little bit."
"He ended up kicking four goals and was really dangerous all night for us."
"His preparation for this match was extraordinary."
Franklin said post-match that he always had every confidence he was going to be able to be ready for the match.
"Straight away, I knew in my mind I was ready to go and I did everything I could to get myself up in terms of recovery and getting up for the game," he told SEN.
Clarkson and Franklin's attention is now firmly on making sure the full forward's knee recovers and he is fully fit to take on reigning premiers Collingwood next week in a preliminary final.
In terms of form heading into that match, Clarkson said he feels the win over the Swans, although let down by a poor third quarter, was the right step ahead of such a big task.
"The thing about getting to this pointy end of the season is that you are coming up against quality sides," he said. "It's hard to keep them down for four quarters."
Clarkson dismissed any major injury concerns over Josh Gibson (shoulder), Paul Puopolo (hamstring) and Ben Stratton (knee) with the hawks confident that trio should be available next week.