HAWTHORN Vice-Captain Jordan Lewis says he and his teammates can’t wait to step foot on the MCG in the first final of the 2013 series.
The Hawks take on their Round 23 opponents, Sydney in the Qualifying Final on Friday night but know the game will be played at a high intensity and with more at stake.
The Swans and Hawks laid 151 tackles between them in the game at ANZ Stadium last Friday night, and that was with just four points at stake.
On Friday night the prize is much bigger, a path straight into a Preliminary Final.
Lewis, one of Hawthorn’s more experienced players having played in 11 finals in his 190 game career knows just how much the game changes come September.
He says being minor premiers now means nothing, will all teams on a level playing field.
“You’d be naïve to say the excitement within the players doesn’t go up when finals arrive; it’s what you play football for,” he told hawthornfc.com.au
“You assess the season when you get to this stage, but it’s a whole new ball game and you’ve got to wipe the slate clean and start again.”
Having played in last year’s decider, the Hawks midfielder believes that can only hold the team, who still boasts a number of young and relatively inexperienced players in good stead for the high intensity brand of finals footy.
“It can only benefit the side having gone so deep last season,” he said.
“A lot of the older guys have played in a few more finals-like games than the younger guys but to get that exposure that they did last year and obviously play in a Grand Final, which is the pinnacle in terms of pressure and exposure, those guys can only grow from that.”
The Hawks had a tough end to the home and away rounds, with matches against Collingwood, North Melbourne and its Qualifying Final opponents Sydney in the final three games.
Despite being victorious in all three, Lewis says the Hawks took much more away from the games than four points.
The Hawks were challenged in each, particularly against the Kangaroos and Swans, trailing by four goals in each but managing to fight back and secure victory in the second half.
It is those fight backs and the ability of the players and coaches to adjust to a different style mid-match that gives the side confidence heading into the toughest games of all, finals.
“We take enormous confidence from those last three games, not only because we won them but because we didn’t play our best football and winning them, that’s the major thing to come out of those games,” he said.
“They’ve been tough games, they’ve ebbed and flowed a little bit and probably bar Collingwood, we didn’t control the entirety of the game.
“There were certainly stages where North Melbourne and Sydney got run ons and we had to stop that and then go again.
“That happened on the weekend against Sydney, we were down for most of the game and although they had some players out, you still have to find a way to win because we had no doubt they were trying to win.
“That is how finals are going to be played, you’ll get challenged and to have had challenges thrown at us in the last few games, so you’d rather play those tough sides leading into finals than anyone else.”
