The Hawks haven’t beaten the Cats since claiming the 2008 premiership, despite coming agonisingly close in Round 2 this season.
Midfielder Brad Sewell says that despite the results not having gone the Hawks’ way, the players enjoy and look forward to facing a team that has won three of the past five premierships.
“The rivalry has been built up the last four or five years, but we really enjoy playing those games where there’s so much riding on it,” Sewell said.
“They’re always great games against Geelong, and it’ll be no different (on Friday).”
In the Round 2 loss, the Hawks and Cats battled it out on a wet Easter Monday in a game that was as hotly contested as we’ve seen this season.
The contested possession count was high, the Hawks winning the key performance indicator with 160 contested possessions to the Cats’ 150.
Tackling too was a feature, with the two sides laying a total of 153 tackles over the course of the match, the Hawks 83 and the Cats 70.
Sewell expects Friday night’s clash to be no different, with the Cats coming into some good form over the last month.
“They’re hard, contested games of football,” Sewell said of Hawthorn’s clashes with Geelong.
“Their form has been pretty good, its been very good so it’ll be a good game.”
The Hawthorn backline will need to be at its best on Friday night, with Tom Hawkins in good form, while James Podisadly could come back into the Geelong side after returning from injury in the VFL last weekend.
Hawkins and Podsiadly combined for eight of Geelong’s 14 goals in the Round 2 match to be the dominant forwards on the ground.
Sewell has faith in the Hawks backline, however, paying tribute to the back six led by Josh Gibson and Ryan Schoenmakers.
“The backs have been super throughout the course of this year,” Sewell said.
“They’ll tackle these guys (Hawkins and Podsiadly) as they have everybody else over the past couple of months.
“ They’ve been working really well as a unit together.”
The Hawks will be striving for their ninth win in as many weeks, a feat Sewell puts down to the consistent output from players across the board.
“Everyone has been contributing so well,” he said.
“There’s a number of guys who have been so consistent in their performances and they’ve been really solid throughout the year.”
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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