HAWTHORN Coach Alastair Clarkson says Friday night’s clash with Geelong will show how much the Hawks have improved on its third-placed finish last season.
The Hawks haven’t beaten the Cats in eight attempts, but the Hawks Coach says that stat is irrelevant.
Instead, Clarkson will use the Cats as a measuring stick for his side, with the aim of identifying how much the Hawks have improved since failing to defeat both Collingwood and Geelong last season.
The Hawks have defeated the Magpies twice this season, but failed against the 2011 premiers by two points in Round 2.
“We’re looking at this week’s game to see just how much we’ve improved since last year in a sense,” Clarkson said.
“We were really competitive as a Club last year but probably the whole football world knew that Geelong and Collingwood were probably the better two teams in the competition.
“We want to test whether or not we’ve made up some ground.”
While Clarkson admits that current ladder positions suggest improvement - with the Hawks sitting in second position, while the Magpies are in fourth and the Cats sixth, results against Geelong beg to differ.
“The ladder positions at the current time suggests we have [improved], but our clashes with Geelong haven’t suggested that yet,” he said.
“We need to get a scalp in that regard, and hopefully that’s tomorrow night.”
Since the Round 2 loss to Geelong, the Hawks have lost just two matches, and are looking to extend the winning streak to nine.
The Cats on the other hand have battled indifferent form, but have beaten top eight sides and premiership fancies Essendon and Adelaide in the last two weeks.
Clarkson says the two sides that take the field at the MCG on Friday night will be vastly different to those that battled it out in Round 2.
“We know it’s going to be a great battle,” he said.
“They’re a terrific side and they’re in pretty good form, their last two games in particular have been really good.
“We are a very different side to the side that played in Round 2 of this year.”
Part of the difference between the two sides, Clarkson says is personnel, with the Hawks set to be without spearhead Lance Franklin.
The Cats too, will take a different side into the clash, fielding a team full of young talent.
“Geelong have changed the way they go about it throughout the course of the year, and so have we,” Clarkson said.
“Both sides have changed their personnel.
“We’re really looking forward to testing our pattern of play against Geelong’s.
“We’ll need to play our best footy tomorrow night.”
Kate Salemme is a member of Hawthorn Football Club’s Digital media team reporting exclusively for hawthornfc.com.au from the Ricoh Centre.
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