Pleased to be entering uncharted territory with his team through to a Preliminary Final, Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson credits his players' focus and intensity for their comfortable 51-point win over the Western Bulldogs at the MCG on Friday night.

The Hawks, for whom Lance Franklin was imperious up forward with eight goals, reaffirmed their status as Geelong's main rivals for the flag, with the authority of their Qualifying Final victory.

"We showed tonight that we're a hard, tough unit and I thought our intensity at the ball and at the opposition was first-class tonight," Clarkson told his post-match media conference.

"It enabled us to open a pretty significant margin throughout the course of the game."

Asked whether the win was his team's most complete performance of the season, Clarkson said, "I'd still like to think we can improve on what we produced tonight."

"That may sound silly because we were really pleased with our effort, but finals footy isn't won by the team that plays the most attractive brand, it's usually won by sides who are just generally hard and tough."

"For most of the game our intensity at the ball was better than the Western Bulldogs."

"You've just got to produce that type of effort every time you play ... particularly in finals."

Clarkson said he was pleased to be able to enjoy some of the 'special' talents of Franklin, who took his goal tally for the season to 110.

"He gets a lot of reward for a lot of hard work," said Clarkson.

"I know that he's got enormous talent, but so much of the results that he gets is because of the work ethic that he's got in preparing to play, and he was a pretty important contributor for us."

The one big concern to come out of the match for the Hawks was a foot injury to Trent Croad which kept the key defender sidelined for the entire second half.

"He's having trouble putting weight on his foot so whether it's ligament damage or bone damage, we need to get it assessed probably tomorrow morning or Monday," Clarkson said.

Clarkson said he wasn't overly concerned by injuries to several other Hawks including Cameron Stokes (leg), Rick Ladson (shoulder) and Grant Birchall (corked hip).