HAWTHORN utility Shaun Burgoyne says the Hawks are raring to get their season started ahead of a blockbuster opening clash against Geelong at the MCG.

While the Hawks have to wait a week to get their 2013 campaign underway, Burgoyne says the playing group is itching to strut their stuff on the big stage.

“It’s pretty exciting at the moment to get to Round 1, we’ve had a pretty good pre-season campaign and the guys are jumping out of their skin to get out there,” Burgoyne said at the Ricoh Centre on Monday.

It will be the first time the Hawks take to the MCG since the Grand Final loss to Sydney, but Burgoyne says that won’t be in the back of the players’ minds.

Despite having featured heavily in September action for the past two seasons, Burgoyne says the playing group won’t be resting on their laurels.

Instead, the group concedes opposition teams will be hunting Hawthorn, but equally, the hunger to succeed still burns within the brown and gold.

“Finishing up the top, we’re going to have a lot of teams come at us this year and hunt us so we’ve got to be on our game every week,” he said.

“It keeps you on your game, you have to stay ahead, you have to keep working.

“We’re very aware that teams are going to be coming at us every week.”

It’s a challenging opening seven weeks for the Hawks, scheduled to play against each of last year’s top eight sides.

The opening two months include a trip to Perth to face the Eagles, before returning to play 2012 preliminary finalists Collingwood then, a Round 7 Grand Final re-match against Sydney at the MCG.

Burgoyne says the tough opening doesn’t worry him or his teammates, they just want to kick off the season with a win.

“You always want to start off on a winning note, but in saying that, there are a lot of games to come after Round 1,” he said.

“We want to get off to a good start.”

The 30 year old hopes to that good start will come with a Round 1 win over Geelong and end a nine-game losing streak.

He says there’s no doubt it’ll be a fierce contest.

“We’ve had some pretty fierce battles over the last couple of years and they’ve come out on top,” he said.

“I have no doubt on Monday there’s going to be a massive crowd and they’re going to come out hard at us again.

“Hopefully we can turn things around this time.”