HAWTHORN hasn’t beaten Geelong in seven attempts, but that’s not what is spurring on the team ahead of the big Easter Monday clash according to assistant coach, Brendon Bolton.

The Cats have been the competition’s most dominant team over the past five seasons, and despite the history between the two clubs, it’s the fact that Geelong are the reigning premiers that is inspiring the Hawks.

“We’re out to hunt, and we know that they’re last year’s premiers so it’s a great challenge for us as a group,” Bolton said.

“We’ve been looking forward to this game.”

Modern football is a battle of attrition, there’s the old cliché that the season is a marathon not a sprint - and these words apply almost perfectly when considering the battle between these two sides over the last four seasons.

It is something that the Hawks coaches and players are aware of, and they have prepared themselves accordingly.

“There’s no doubt it’s going to be a battle of wills - those who can go harder and longer for the period of the game are going to come out with the result,” Bolton said.

“It’s always a hot contest against the team that are the premiers, so we know we’ve got to have a steely resolve for the whole two hours.

“Tackling and being first to the footy, all those things that we know are the cornerstone of a good team are going to have to be spot on against a team like that.”

The Hawks midifeld coach knows all about the strengths of the Geelong midfield, and arguably, he has one of the toughest jobs in football this weekend - how to stop them.

“They’ve definitely got some really strong bodies, they’ve got the likes of (Joel) Selwood, (James) Kelly is a really good player, (Jimmy) Bartel and you can throw (Paul) Chapman in there,” he said.

“We know that they’re a really good team when they’ve got the ball in their hands, they can move it really fast in transition so we need to do what we can to slow up their ball movement.”

Geelong forward Tom Hawkins has enjoyed a rich vein of form in recent weeks, stretching back to the first qualifying final against the Hawks last season. 

Teaming up with James Podsiadly, the Cats forward duo are now an even more daunting task for opposition defenders, but Bolton says the Hawks have the personnel and approach to quell their influence.

“We’ve got some good backs down there now - (Ryan) Schoenmakers is stepping up and (Josh) Gibson and (Jarrad) Boumann, they’re all quality in the air,” he said. 

“They’ve (the backmen) got their own role to play, but so has the midfield in making sure that the ball going in there is pressured and not easy for them.

“I think that contest in the middle becomes crucial.

“We need to make sure our defensive pressure is on for the whole four quarters.”

Kate Salemme is a member of Hawthorn Football Club’s digital media team reporting exclusively for hawthornfc.com.au from the Ricoh Centre.