• The Australian
• September 15, 2015 12:00AM
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Eddie Betts and Riley Knight train with the Adelaide Crows yesterday. Picture: Sarah Reed.

Adelaide trump card Eddie Betts will need to lift his rating against the Hawks if the Crows are going to cause an upset in Friday night’s semi-final at the MCG.

Betts, who is a certainty to be a first-time All Australian forward this year following his 63-goal season in his second year with Adelaide, has performed well below his best in two games against the Hawks since switching clubs at the end of 2013.

The former Carlton forward booted five goals in a match-winning performance against the Western Bulldogs in Saturday night’s knockout final and kept the Crows in the contest early with three first-quarter goals as the Dogs charged.

In round 12 this year, Betts kicked just one goal from nine possessions against the Hawks. And in round 17 last year he also could manage no better than a ­single goal from seven touches.

All up, the Hawks have had him well covered. In 11 appearances against them, he’s booted 17 goals.

After nine seasons at Princes Park, Betts has matured enormously as a player and been outstanding for Adelaide in the first two years of his four-year contract, booting 114 goals in 44 games.

Hawthorn’s Jarryd Roughead stressed yesterday the desire within the club to win their third straight premiership was as strong as in the past two years, despite the Hawks’ moderate performance against West Coast in Perth last Friday night where they hardly had a winner apart from Sam Mitchell.

“We’re playing finals footy and every year there’s the hunger within the group to win, because some blokes haven’t won one,” Roughead said.

“I know what it’s like to win a couple, so you want that every year and for as long as you can, because you never know if we’re ever going to be back here again.”

Roughead said the Hawks’ self-belief hadn’t taken a hit from the jarring loss to the Eagles.

“West Coast to their credit were very, very good, but that’s why we got top four,” he said. “You get that double chance and now we get to play on our home deck on Friday night against a good side that were very good on Saturday night.

“We’ve only lost two finals in the past four years, so we definitely know how to win in September and we give ourselves every chance on Friday night.”

Hawthorn will replace injured forward Jack Gunston (ankle) with either first-year forward James Sicily or Ryan Shoen­makers.

Sicily was omitted last week after three games this season, while Shoenmakers has not played since round 21. His last competitive game was for Box Hill in their VFL qualifying final win in the first weekend of this month.

Meanwhile, North Melbourne forward Lindsay Thomas is free to play against Sydney at ANZ Stad­ium on Saturday night after escaping with a fine from the match review panel yesterday.

Thomas is no certainty to be ­selected this weekend, however, following his one-goal/three possession effort after being given 24 per cent of game time in his first match since he was held goalless against Fremantle in round 21.

Fellow forward Kayne Turner looms as a potential replacement as he was left out of the elimination final following a bout of concussion against the Tigers in round 23.

After North’s third win from their past four finals, coach Brad Scott said: “Kayne Turner missed with concussion, although he was cleared to play. That was a match committee decision to rule him out because of the concussion.

“We just felt that it was such a significant hit last week that even if he was cleared to play he wouldn’t be at his best.

“Now with nine days since the last time we played Richmond and now another week, we expect him to be pushing up for selection.”