HAVING witnessed Lance Franklin at his destructive best, Hawthorn onballer Liam Shiels knows it will be nearly impossible to shut down the superstar forward this Friday night.
Instead, the Hawks can only hope to limit Franklin's influence in a blockbuster clash against the Sydney Swans.
Franklin has bounced back from his mental health problems with a vengeance this season and leads the Coleman Medal race with 34 goals.
He bagged five against star Richmond defender Alex Rance in round eight and Shiels believes his former premiership teammate is back to his best.
"I think he's probably in career-best form. It's great to see him going well," Shiels said.
"He's going to be a massive challenge for our defenders on Friday night.
"Alex Rance had the job on him on Friday night and Bud still ended up kicking five goals.
"He is hard to stop."
Franklin was held scoreless and to just seven disposals by James Frawley in round eight at the MCG last season, but Buddy will be brimming with confidence and aiming to square the win-loss ledger against his old club at three-all.
The Franklin sideshow aside, the Hawks (6-2) are expecting a fierce response from the Swans when they return to the scene of their collapse to a one-point defeat against Richmond just six days earlier.
"No doubt they'll be disappointed," Shiels said.
"They probably should've got away with a win there, they were up going into the last two minutes, but they'll be fired-up on Friday night."
After returning to a negating role in recent weeks, Shiels is preparing for an important but yet-to-be-assigned job on one of the Swans' midfield guns.
The 25-year-old has become a tackling machine over the past two weeks.
He laid 16 against the Tigers and 15 in the win over the Dockers, just shy of the all-time record (19), which tenacious Western Bulldog Tom Liberatore equalled on Sunday.
"I think Libba had 14 to half-time at the weekend, so he made my 15 look pretty ordinary," Shiels said.
"But I played a bit of an accountable role on Dustin Martin against Richmond in the second half and also against Lachie Neale and those blokes are pretty good at getting the footy.
"So I was just there to tackle them, I guess.
"(The Swans have) got some great players in there – Dan Hannebery, Luke Parker, Kieren Jack – you could probably name five or six of their gun midfielders.
"It could be a number of guys who I could go to."
The Swans are set to be bolstered by the return of clearance king Josh Kennedy (hamstring) and Ben McGlynn (corked thigh), but the Hawks are also likely to get a boost.
Cyril Rioli hasn't returned to the club yet after missing last week's 41-point win over Fremantle due to a family illness, but Shiels expected the brilliant small forward to line-up in the MCG blockbuster.
