COLLINGWOOD wakes this morning still in the eight but, in all likelihood, it will finish the weekend out of it. It should not surprise — the Magpies are a long way from contention after last night again being outplayed, this time by Hawthorn.

The Magpies were comprehensively beaten, going down by 54 points in front of 58,317 people at the MCG to record their third straight loss and further suggest that the slide from the eight may not be a momentary thing. While only a fortnight ago, Collingwood harboured desires for fourth spot, now even eighth appears optimistic.

Theoretically, putting margins aside, this should naturally have been how it was — that the lesser side, having lost its past two matches to lower sides, should be easily accounted for by the better team. But Collingwood often performs counter-intuitively, finding its best game against the best sides to win when it's not expected to, and lose when it is.

This was not one of those nights. From the outset, Hawthorn had the say of how the game would be played. There was no Collingwood harassing and pressuring and choking to force the ball to be coughed up like a bad oyster.

But for a rally in the third quarter, when Collingwood crept up on Hawthorn's early 39-point lead to be only 10 points adrift, the Magpies never really threatened. They weren't allowed to. Whenever a rally arose, Sam Mitchell cleared the ball, or ran with it, or created something with it. Franklin finished with the goals, but the work had been done upfield by his captain.

Hawthorn played the game on its terms and if there was a fear that it would be flattened by the intensity of last week's game against Geelong, it didn't show.

It was a match that began as it would end. The Hawks had two goals in the first two minutes, the first to Stuart Dew, the next to Jarryd Roughead — the early stages were not dissimilar to Collingwood's recent games against Adelaide and Essendon, when the Magpies also failed to touch the ball for the first 10 or 15 minutes.

Hawthorn played through its zone, which is only effective because it has the talent to win the contested ball, and the running to ensure the zone holds. the Hawks also have a forward they can isolate to afford the luxury of numbers pressed afield.

Although Roughead finished the match with three goals — another game where he didn't seem to do a whole lot, yet still finished with a few, and could have had a few more — this game was not about him.

No, the forward to trouble Collingwood was Franklin — as ever. He kicked 8.6 and might have had 15 — as ever.

Collingwood chose the somewhat surprising option of Nick Maxwell to mind Franklin — football's worst job. It was an ambitious choice given Maxwell's limitations, but he does not lack for endeavour.

Maxwell was moved after Franklin kicked his third early in the second quarter, by which time Collingwood was already trailing by six goals and confronting a humiliating blowout.

Harry O'Brien was the first switch, but proved less equipped for the task, so Maxwell returned, and was better through the second and third terms.

In that period, Franklin began to command the ball from his teammates at an unreasonable length — demanding the ball be kicked 60 metres to his lead. The kicks were attempted but fell short.

The final quarter became a reprise of the first time these sides met as Franklin peppered the goals, kicking three goals in six minutes.

Collingwood, in contrast, had no forward — or even forward line — to speak of. Travis Cloke was beaten by Trent Croad and his own teammates. Where he led they didn't kick, and if they did it went high and wide.

Thus, Cloke and Paul Medhurst were forced to the wings to find the ball. Medhurst would have expected to be met by Campbell Brown, who closed him down when last they met. But like last week, Brown went forward. He didn't stay long, but Tom Murphy had already proved himself on Medhurst.

In the absence of anyone to threaten a goal, Collingwood kept Dale Thomas forward and did not rotate him through the middle, robbing Peter to pay Paul, when the team might have been better served by Thomas switching with Alan Didak.

HAWTHORN 6.3 8.8 12.11 17.14 (116)
COLLINGWOOD 1.2 3.8 6.13 8.14 (62)
GOALS Hawthorn: Franklin 8, Roughead 4, Williams, Bateman, Sewell, Gilham, Dew. Collingwood: Pendlebury 2, H Shaw 2, Davis, Didak, Medhurst, Anthony
BEST Hawthorn: Mitchell, Franklin, Lewis, Hodge, Croad, Campbell. Collingwood: Pendlebury, H Shaw, Brown, Burns, Swan
UMPIRES James, McLaren, Jeffery
CROWD 58,307 at the MCG

THE UPSHOT
The Magpies have lost three in a row and could slip out of the top eight by tomorrow night, having reached the halfway mark of the season with seven wins and threatening to finish inside the top four.

TALKING POINT
Hawthorn's stars shone brightly under the big Friday night lights, with Lance Franklin, skipper Sam Mitchell, Luke Hodge, Jarryd Roughead and Chance Bateman leading the charge towards September action.

HOT AND COLD
Franklin started the night leading the Coleman medal with 77 goals and went to bed with 85. He had an amazing 14 scoring shots for his eight goals, while up the other end, Collingwood forward Travis Cloke failed to register a score.