What Clarko says

15. Luke Hodge

Thanks again for joining us on hawthornfc.com.au in our summer series counting down our playing list from number 48 to number 2.

Today we profile Luke Hodge who will go into his second year as captain of the Hawthorn Football Club.

'Hodgey' was drafted to the Club in the 2001 draft which also brought in players like Campbell Brown and Sam Mitchell.

He's had a stellar career to-date, but the one thing that will top off his career is if he can captain the Club to premiership glory, and I'm sure all Hawks fans would welcome 'Hodgey' standing on the premiership dais at the end of a grand final in the next few years.

He's pre-season this year has been very sound, if you recall last year he was putting in a great pre-season until the end of January where he suffered an Achilles injury.

We thought it was just a minor setback, but it ended up restricting him for eight weeks and saw him limp into the 2011 season with a fitness base that wasn't up to his usual standard.

It took him a little while into the season to hit his straps and play the footy we know he's capable of. 

We're hopeful that if we monitor his progress steadily over the next six to eight weeks, he'll be cherry-ripe and ready to go for the 2012 season.

'Hodgey' is probably one of the toughest and most courageous players in the competition - he's a very fair player which is great combined with his outstanding leadership qualities.

He's the perfect guy to be leading our Club into the 2012 season, and we look forward to the contribution that he'll make.

We'd love to see 'Hodgey' energise our side and take them a few steps further than last season.

Tomorrow we'll feature Grant Birchall who will wear the number 14 guernsey again for season 2012, and I look forward to you checking back then.

What are your thoughts?