HAWTHORN'S inspirational midfielder/defender Luke Hodge insists that he will be fit for the grand final despite the rib injury he suffered against St Kilda in the preliminary final.

"The ribs are fine – we've got no problems," Hodge said at Waverley on Tuesday.

“There was no need to get it scanned. We believe there’s nothing wrong and we’re looking forward to having a crack at Geelong this weekend.”

Hodge said he would not wear any padding to protect his ribs on Saturday, and he was prepared for Cats players to target him.

"It's a final. In every final you should expect to get a few hits."

Hodge said he was feeling no pain from the collision with Justin Koschitzke despite being in visible pain when he copped another hit in the second quarter.

“It was similar contact but once I had the five minutes on the bench I felt fine. The doc said I was right to go back on.”

Like 20 of his teammates this week, Hodge will be playing in his first grand final. But he says he hopes to draw on the experience of teammate Stuart Dew, who played in Port Adelaide’s premiership side in 2004.

“Dewey’s going to be the one to get around to the boys. That’s the reason we got him into the group,” Hodge said.

“He’s such an experienced player and the leadership he’s shown through this finals series has really helped us.

“He hasn’t (said anything) at this stage. I’d say that he’d probably voice what he thinks coming up. Every time he says something everyone listens because he has so much knowledge on the game.”

While the Cats are the hot favourites to take the flag, Hawthorn’s has the star power in gun forward Lance Franklin.

Franklin kicked just the one goal against St Kilda on Saturday, but Hodge said he still had an impact on the game.

“I actually thought Buddy played a fairly good game in a team sense. All the forwards mixed in pretty well,” he said.

“He didn’t get as many goals as he normally does but he helped a lot of the guys like Willo (Mark Williams) and Roughy (Jarryd Roughead) kick their goals.

“He can hold his head high after the weekend because it was a good team effort.”