Hawthorn beat minor premier Fremantle by 32 points in Thursday night's qualifying final at Optus Stadium, 10.12 (72) to 5.10 (40), ending the Dockers' unbeaten home season and sending Sam Mitchell's side straight through to a preliminary final at the MCG in a fortnight.

The game was decided before half-time. Hawthorn led 4.4 to 1.3 at the first change and 6.7 (43) to 1.4 (10) at the main break. Fremantle's 10 points was its lowest first half in any final, below the 1.6 (12) it managed against the same club in the 2013 grand final, and its 40 for the night was its lowest score of the season.

The Dockers were not short of the ball. They finished with 57 inside 50s to Hawthorn's 51 and never kicked consecutive goals. Their three key forwards, Jye Amiss, Josh Treacy and Pat Voss, had brought 153 goals into the game. At half-time they had 0.1, seven disposals and no marks between them, and Josh Battle kept Treacy without a mark until the last five minutes.

“We had 20 back-half turnovers in the first half," Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir said afterwards. "We're usually keeping teams to that for a game, and we just got stuck in our back half and really that's where the damage was done." He put the forward-line numbers plainly: "We ended up having 57 inside-50s for 40 points. It's not us.”

Hawthorn's best came from its defence and its midfield. Co-captain James Sicily had 26 disposals, 10 marks and 12 intercepts. Will Day, playing his first final after missing the club's last two September campaigns through injury, had 24 disposals and a team-high 14 contested possessions. Nick Watson kicked two goals and had a game-high nine score involvements, and the goals were spread across seven players, with Jack Gunston and Dylan Moore also kicking two each.

"It's by design," Mitchell said of the pressure his side brought. "We'd love to play like that all the time. You can't always get it done." Asked about Day, he said: "He's so resilient. He's been through so much." He was not interested in looking past the fortnight ahead. "The only thing we know is that there's still two wins to go."

Fremantle had won all 12 of its games at Optus Stadium this season by an average of 38 points, finished the home-and-away rounds 19-4 with a club-record 19 wins, and had beaten Hawthorn at the same ground in Round 9 after trailing by 19 points midway through the last quarter. The crowd of 59,446 was its biggest of the year.

The one selection Longmuir will be asked about was Brandon Walker. Picked for his first senior game since Round 1, and his fourth in two years, Walker was given the job on Watson and rolled his ankle late in the third quarter. "Clearly, some ankles you can jab and get him back out there, and this wasn't one of them, so that tells me it's serious," Longmuir said. The club had not published a scan result by Friday morning. Jordan Clark, with a game-high 38 disposals, was Fremantle's best.

Hawthorn now has next week off and will host a preliminary final at the MCG against the winner of the second semi-final. Fremantle keeps its double chance and hosts the first semi-final at Optus Stadium next week against whichever of Geelong and Carlton wins Friday night's elimination final at the MCG. The AFL has not yet fixed the day or time. Sydney plays Brisbane at the SCG on Saturday afternoon and Adelaide meets the Western Bulldogs at Adelaide Oval on Saturday night.

"We've won 14 games in a row this year, so we've proven that we can win two games in a row," Longmuir said. "It's not the way we wanted it to go, but we're not dead and buried."