A sensational opening stanza against Carlton at Telstra Dome on Saturday night has put Hawthorn through to the 2008 NAB Cup semi-finals.

The Hawks blasted eight first quarter goals, two of them 'Super' while holding the Blues goal-less en route to a 34-point victory - 4.9.13 (103) to 4.3.15 (69).

Hawthorn led by as much as 72 points early in second quarter but the Blues recovered well to fight the match out right to the finish.

Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson had the luxury of giving his youngsters a run while being able to rest a host of stars including Lance Franklin and Sam Mitchell for the second half.

"We were really pleased with the way that we played in the greater part of the first half and … the risk is you're perceived as being arrogant, but the second-half gave us a great opportunity to play some of our younger players," Clarkson said.

"They made plenty of mistakes … but we're really pleased with the outcome. At that level to expose so many younger players on our list was a real luxury for our club."

Tim Clarke was Hawthorn's leading ball-winner with 23 possessions while Luke Hodge (21), Travis Tuck (21) and Jordan Lewis (20) were also busy.

But the news wasn't all good for the Hawks.

All-Australian defender Campbell Brown was reported for a crunching late bump from behind on the Blues' boom recruit Matthew Kreuzer early in the final term.

And youngster Josh Kennedy had his name taken for making high contact with Marc Murphy.

Clarkson described Brown's report as a "downer" but said "you've got to put yourself in a competitive environment".

Nick Stevens had a match-high 35 touches to show that his comeback from spinal surgery is right on track while Marc Murphy (30) and Andrew Carrazzo (28) also got plenty of the ball.

Carlton set up with a no-name back six - Grigg, Bower, Jamison, Waite, Carrazzo, Austin - which hinted at an experimental mindset, and from the opening bounce they were under siege.

The Hawks harassed, surged in waves from midfield and delivered pinpoint passes to an open forward line that made it easy for the finishers.

The Blues' first option was to scatter kamikaze handballs to team-mates who were either static or backpedalling, and invariably it would finish with a fumble or a crunching tackle to force the turnover.

Headless chooks would have made a better fist of it.

By quarter time Hawthorn had eight majors and 58 points