HAWTHORN president Jeff Kennett has chided the club's supporters for not turning up in large numbers for Saturday night's clash with Adelaide.

Despite having the Hawks having close to 80,000 members, only 26,693 fans turned up at the MCG, on a night that also marked Shaun Burgoyne's 350th game and the anniversaries of the 1978, 1988 and 2008 premiership teams.

The Hawks won by 56 points to move into touching distance of the eight.

"My one sadness at Saturday night's game was the small attendance," he said in a letter to Hawthorn members published on the club website.

"We, as a club approaching 80,000 members, should be able to do better than that in future. I know the weather was cold and there were a lot of sporting activities occurring, but our boys need to hear our voices, so please try to attend the rest of the games if you can," he said.

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The Hawks have been a bit unlucky with their two most recent prime-time home games. Awful weather in the lead-up meant just 32,784 attended the Friday night game against Sydney in round eight, while the Adelaide clash was also hampered by poor weather, in addition to the competing attractions of the Australia-France FIFA World Cup clash and the Australia-Ireland rugby test match at neighboring AAMI Park.

Hawthorn has just two MCG home games for the rest of the season, against traditional rivals Essendon on August 4 and Geelong on August 11. Both are Saturday afternoon games and should attract healthy crowds.

The Hawks host Gold Coast at University of Tasmania Stadium on Saturday afternoon in the third of their four Launceston games for the year.