The AFL Grand Final that everyone has been waiting for all season is now a reality with the competition's two best sides Geelong and Hawthorn to do battle in next week's premiership decider after the Hawks ended Robert Harvey's premiership dream in ruthless fashion at the MCG on Saturday night.

But while the Hawks might be heading into next Saturday's grand final against a Geelong side that has lost just one game all season and has won 42 of its past 44 games as underdogs, Alastair Clarkson's team goes into the premiership decider in devastating form having won their two finals by a combined total of 105 points after beating the disappointing Saints 18.10 (118) to 9.10 (64) on Saturday night.

However despite the lop-sided scoreline, the Hawks were forced to do it the hard way after star pair Lance 'Buddy' Franklin and vice-captain Luke Hodge were injured in the opening term.

Franklin, this year's Coleman Medalist, went off with a hand injury and managed just three touches in the first half.

However Hodge, the Hawks' other All-Australian representative this season, was in even worse shape after coughing up blood at quarter-time after being on the receiving end of two heavy knocks.

But while both were able to come back on and finish out the game, both were well below their best and will no doubt be closely monitored this week in the build-up to the Hawks' first grand final since 1991.

However the injuries to Franklin and Hodge, which won't keep the star pair out of next week's premiership decider, were the only blots on an otherwise superb Hawthorn performance in which they looked the fresher team from the outset following the week off.

After the first five goals of the match had been scored as a result of either free-kicks or 50 metre penalties, the Hawks soon took control and led by 13 points at quarter-time - although the Saints should have been closer after forwards Stephen Milne and Justin Koschitzke missed three sitters between them in the first term.

And boy did the Hawks make the Saints pay for their first term wastefulness in a brilliant second term as the running power in midfield of Clinton Young, Jordan Lewis, Sam Mitchell and veteran Shane Crawford simply blew Ross Lyon's team apart.

The Hawks slammed on seven goals to one for the term to take a matchwinning 47-point lead into half-time - and all this with Franklin held goalless - as their dominance was reflected by 15 forward entries to six for the term.

And there was no sweeter moment for Hawks fans, who have endured nearly two decades of misery after the club played in eight grand finals (for five wins) in nine seasons between 1983-91 - when the inspirational Crawford kicked a great goal on the run from near the boundary line late in the term.

The 34-year-old, who has played 304 games, is the only Hawthorn player in the top 17 on the club's all-time games list that does not have a premiership to his name but he finally gets the opportunity to rectify that next Saturday.

But for Saints' veteran Harvey, the premiership dream is officially over and the dual Brownlow Medalist will end his career with the unwanted record of having played the most games in AFL history - 383 - without winning an AFL premiership on a night when apart from Nick Riewoldt's three third quarter goals, there was nothing to smile about for Saints' fans as their premiership drought stretching back to 1966 goes on.

HAWTHORN: 4.4, 11.5, 15.8, 18.10 (118)
ST KILDA: 2.3, 3.6, 7.7, 9.10 (64)

GOALS: Hawthorn: Williams 5, Roughead 4, Rioli 2, Young 2, Osborne, Crawford, Bateman, Brown, Sewell
St Kilda: Riewoldt 3, S Fisher 2, Schneider, Fiora, Montagna, Milne
BEST: Hawthorn: Lewis, Mitchell, Young, Williams, Sewell, Crawford, Croad, Birchall, Bateman, Roughead, Guerra
St Kilda: Hudghton, Goddard, S Fisher, R Clarke
INJURIES: Hawthorn: Nil
St Kilda: Nil
UMPIRES: Kennedy, Rosebury, McLaren
REPORTS: Nil
CHANGES: Hawthorn: Murphy replaced in selected side by Gilham
St Kilda: Ball (hamstring) replaced in selected side by Fiora
CROWD: 77,002 at MCG