LUKE Hodge isn’t worried about the past, and neither are his teammates.
The Hawks head to the MCG on Saturday night on the back of a 10-game losing streak against Geelong, but that’s of no concern to the Hawthorn skipper.
Hodge says inside the inner sanctum of Hawthorn, the focus is on the here and now rather than the history of past meetings.
He says having lost to the Cats 10 times since the 2008 Grand Final is of no significance, but playing a consistent brand of high quality football against them, is.
“We just worry about what we can do now,” he told hawthornfc.com.au
“Against a quality team like Geelong, we’ve got to play a high quality brand of football and we’ve got to play it for four quarters.
“We played it for three quarters in Round 1 and they pipped us, and we’ve had chances to beat them in the past, but we just know it’s going to be a very physical and entertaining game Saturday night.”
The Hawks have their own winning streak to keep intact, however, but Hodge says that too is of little importance to the playing group.
He says the focus isn’t on breaking the Club’s all-time record for games won in a row, but rather on implementing the game plan the coaches and players believe will defeat the Cats on Saturday night.
“As far as the 12 in a row goes – that’s probably more for the supporters and the media,” Hodge said.
“As players, we focus on what we can do here and now and whatever record is around, you don’t focus on that kind of thing especially when you’re playing such a good side in Geelong.
“Whatever we’ve done in the last 12 weeks is forgotten at this moment.
“We’ve gone through the tapes of how they (Geelong) play, we’ve gone through the way we think we can beat them and it’s about getting out there on Saturday night and implementing those plans and hopefully playing four quarters of football and getting the win against a very strong Geelong side.”
Hodge knows though, emotions will be running high amongst the Hawthorn supporters who haven’t seen their Hawks defeat the Cats in 10 attempts.
“Footy is an emotional game and it brings every emotion out of you,” he said.
“Hopefully this weekend, if we do the right things a lot of the Hawks supporters will go home excited and happy – something that we haven’t walked away from a Geelong game with in a long time.”
