OF COURSE, Alan Didak heard it from the crowd at Telstra Dome last night.

Never the most popular player with opposition supporters, the Hawthorn fans made it their business to hoot Collingwood's controversial half-forward each time he gathered the football.

It's not unfamiliar territory for the man they call 'Dids'. For opposing supporters, he is 1. good, 2. carries himself with a certain swagger and 3. likes to rub it in when he's going well, which is a recipe for trouble. He'll be the guy who bobs up after a quiet day with three late goals and a finger to the crowd. He's one of those you despise, but you would quickly develop an enduring love should he swap and wear your colours.

The past week's events only added more ammunition for Hawthorn's supporters to fire, and Alastair Clarkson sent the rugged Campbell Brown, his best back-half stopper, to run with Didak. Doubtless the feisty Brown had something to offer by way of verbal encouragement and touchy-feely advice. Didak immediately knew that he was in for a tough night.

Didak had his first touch at nine minutes, a scrappy kick forward, and the crowd hooted loudly. Each time he touched it, the booing went around the ground. They grew louder at 12 minutes in the second quarter when he produced a piece of vintage Didakian opportunism, grasping a quick handball from Travis Cloke and snapping a nice, angled goal off a step.

The Collingwood man did a little jump and understated fist pump. But he did not have the best of nights. He spent a lot of time with hands on knees, seemingly drained from the contest, and by what must have been an energy-sapping week. His second goal, deep in the final quarter, was from point-blank range and to be truthful, spoon-fed by Dane Swan.

Hawthorn would have been happy with Brown's job.

The Hawks won by weight of numbers and superior efficiency up forward in a game that could have gone either way. Not for the first time, Collingwood paid for sloppy conversion, finishing up at 12.15 versus Hawthorn's deadly 15.5. Only one of the Hawks' behinds was rushed; in fact, the ability of Jarryd Roughead and Lance Franklin to kick nine goals between them proved to be a conclusive factor as well.

Collingwood's lack of effective tall defenders, with James Clement, Simon Prestigiacomo and Harry O'Brien still absent, was significant.

Roughead is an interesting case, for a host of pundits were prepared to write off his career not so long ago. But when the game was on the line last night, he presented himself up forward, launched into a pack and ripped down a towering mark, then drilled the matchwinning goal, his third of the day.

Though Franklin has won most of the attention, the reality is they are a formidable combination that can only get better.

Franklin himself had a bittersweet night, mostly held in check by Tyson Goldsack. It is a measure of his prodigious talent that on a night like that, he still walked away with four goals straight. His brain fade in the third quarter — when he gathered a loose ball at the top of the goal square and then ventured a bounce, ultimately being caught by Heath Shaw and Nick Maxwell — can be put down to Buddy being Buddy.

Collingwood had some brilliant individual players, notably Dane Swan, whose work rate never varied from start to finish, and Scott Pendlebury and Shaw.

Irishman Martin Clarke followed up his impressive debut with an even better second game, kicking three goals and winning plenty of the ball. Coach Mick Malthouse gave him the difficult task of running with Brownlow medallist Shane Crawford and Clarke handled it well, even though Crawford made a contribution himself.

Hawthorn's efficiency as it moved forward was impressive, and the Hawks have a hard edge now as well. Their defence, marshalled by Brown, held up.

No more than two goals had separated the teams all night until the final quarter and it came down to this. Seventeen minutes in, the Magpies hit the lead but then Hawthorn surged forward and Heath Shaw and Nick Maxwell had a mix-up, allowing Michael Osborne to take an uncontested mark near the goal square.

Shaw merely watched as Maxwell came in to spoil. It resulted in a goal and Hawthorn would not concede the lead again.