Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson denied on Sunday night his team has become too 'Buddy conscious' after suffering a shock loss to Richmond on a day when Lance Franklin's charge towards 100 goals seemed to affect the decision-making of the Hawks' players.

Franklin, who went into Sunday's game needing nine goals to become the first player since Sydney's Tony Lockett in 1998 to boot a century of goals in the home and away season, instead could only manage a wasteful 3.6 - with two other shots failing to score - as the Hawks suffered a shock 29 point loss.

It leaves the man known as 'Buddy' on 94 goals and locked in an increasingly tight race with Carlton's Brendan Fevola - who is now on 90 goals following his six for the Blues on Sunday - for the Coleman Medal and opens up the possibility of both bringing up the ton when the two teams clash in the final round of the home and away season.

The Hawks booted their equal second lowest score of the season on Sunday - just 10.16 (76) on a day when Franklin's key forward partner Jarryd Roughead was kept goalless for the first time this season while star goalsneak Mark Williams kicked just one as the pair were starved of opportunities as the Hawks appeared to aim the ball at Franklin at every opportunity.

But that played right into the hands of the Tigers, who continually pushed extra players into defence as Franklin often had to compete against three or four opponents.

However Clarkson denied Franklin's charge to 100 goals had become a distraction for his team - which is already guaranteed of finishing second or third and facing the Western Bulldogs in a first-up qualifying final in three weeks time - or that his team had overly concentrated on getting goals for Franklin at the expense of other players on Sunday.

"He gets a lot of shots at goal, he has kicked 94 now and he will keep working at his game," Clarkson said of Franklin.

"It (the 100 goals) is not a focus for us and I don't think it's too much of a focus for him (Franklin) at the present time either."

"We just want to generate enough footy into the forward line to give ourselves a chance to kick a big score and if he (Franklin) is on the end of it great but if not, it's doesn't concern us."

However Richmond coach Terry Wallace thought the Hawks went for Franklin at the expense of Roughead on far too many occasions on Sunday.

"Roughead has kicked 10 goals in total the last two times we have played them and he has always been a worry for us with his contested marking," he said.

"But I thought they (Hawthorn) put a few eggs in the one (Franklin) basket today."

However Wallace said he could understand that when Franklin has been "as good as he has been and when a bloke is nine goals off a hundred and the opposition (Hawthorn) know they are already in a finals campaign."

Clarkson said his team lost on Sunday because it did not make the most of its chances rather than any over-reliance or too much focus on Franklin.

"The way the game is, scoreboard pressure is the best pressure you can apply in any form of the game and we couldn't apply scoreboard pressure to hurt the opposition and get some momentum and Richmond made us pay," he said.