Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson said the club had taken a conservative approach with Hodge in leaving him out of the side that defeated Collingwood by three points at the weekend after he jarred his knee against Fremantle in round 21.
However, the key playmaker is ready to go which leaves Clarkson with a tough decision to make.
“I think we’d be hard-pressed to leave Hodgey out,” Clarkson said on Monday.
“I’d reckon he’d be wanting to knock us out if we didn’t pick him this week. He nearly knocked me out Friday when we didn’t pick him [to play against Collingwood].
“He’ll be right to go. It’s not great that you’ve got to make a decision on someone to leave out of the side, but I daresay guys like Hodge, Ladson, Shiels and Schoenmakers are all in line for selection - it just depends on what sort of mix [we need].”
Ruckman Brent Renouf suffered a corked thigh in the win over the Magpies, but Clarkson said he would be fit to do battle with the imposing Aaron Sandilands at Subiaco.
The coach agreed the ruck duel would be an important facet of the match and refused to concede it was an area of weakness in his side.
“We’ll back ourselves in despite the fact that Sandilands is such a dominant figure. We’ll back our players in in that regard,” he said.
“He’s played the bulk of Fremantle’s games this year and whilst he’s been an outstanding contributor for them, they haven’t won every one of those games that he’s played. So they can be beaten with him on the side and they’ve got 21 other guys that we’ve got to focus pretty heavily on as well.
“In addition to that we’ve really got to focus on the things that we do well as a club.”
Sandilands was one of several first-choice players missing from the Freo side that Hawthorn smashed by 116 points in Tasmania with Clarkson taking little from that game in preparation for their next meeting.
At the very least Saturday’s final will be testament to the persistence of the Hawks, who found themselves in a huge hole at 1-6 seven rounds into the season.
Clarkson admitted the outlook was pretty bleak at that point, but said he couldn’t be happier to be entering the finals with some momentum and few injury concerns.
“How deep that takes us into the finals series will be determined a little bit by our opponents but more so by our compliance to our structures and systems,” he said.
“If we do that really well we give ourselves a great chance.
“If we play to our capabilities we’ll challenge any side in the competition,whether it’s Fremantle or one of the other 14 sides.
“Strangely enough the doomsayers were saying our finals campaign was over at round seven and seven weeks later we were in the bottom half of the eight. If you can put together games of consistent footy and get on a winning streak then anything is possible and that’s the type of attitude we take into this finals campaign. Anything can happen.
“Win three or four games of footy on end and that’s going to be enough for one of these eight sides ... to salute.”
The Hawks will likely fly out of Melbourne for Perth on Friday for Saturday’s match.
