HAWTHORN president Jeff Kennett believes the Hawks are in the perfect position to cause an upset during Saturday's grand final against Geelong.

Kennett said his club is in a zone that promotes premiership success and that he is “quietly confident we can pull off what has been our goal for the past four years.

"Things will change each year, that's why winning this Saturday is so important," Kennett said, on Wednesday at the City Hawks Lunch at the RACV Club.

"We respect Geelong but we don't fear them.

"This is our opportunity for all the reasons I've listed, the values, the culture, the effort and the planning, to actually make history.

"Obviously time will tell how we do. But I can assure you, regardless of the result, the team, the club, our members, our supporters, our sponsors, genuinely believe in those wonderful values in 2008.

"This has been a process that started four years ago and is now starting to deliver.

"I've only experienced this twice in my life where all things are coming together at once and where people are happy to be here.

"It's happening now at Hawthorn, and it happened in the first three years of our government, within our own party at least.

"But it is a rare moment, and it's a moment for us to savour."

Kennett expanded on the respect Hawthorn has for Geelong, as he believes both clubs were previously in a similar situation where rebuilding was necessary.

"They are a good club, well led, from the highest level through their chief executive, have a very good playing group, and are very much in the same way where we believe we have got our yins and yangs in balance," he said.

He also paid tribute to the processes Alastair Clarkson's appointment set into motion and how recent results indicated the current list can replicate the club's success of the ’70s and ’80s for the next five years.

"Four years ago, my predecessor made a decision to invest in an untried coach to remould a team and rebuild it from the ground up," he said.

"And so began a process under Alastair Clarkson. We can see the club attracted a number of players who fitted the model he designed, together with Chris Pelchen.

"That was terribly important, but was only one side of the agenda.

"The second side was to build up the values and the culture in such a way that we were also commercially successful, so that we could support those coaches and players.

"Over the last two or three years, we have been building up our financial strengths. We've increased the allocations of money to the football department, which gives us access to technology and bigger and better medical and support staff, none of which comes cheap.

"After three years in the job, I've come to the view that it's pretty easy to put a football team on the park. You could do it for between $25 and $28 million dollars a year.

"But if that's all you've got, you won't be profitable or you may be marginally, but you will never play a grand final."