GEELONG captain Tom Harley says the Cats’ play will focus on the ball in Saturday’s grand final and they won’t be too worried about Hawthorn’s promised physical approach.
“It’s a physical game and if it happens, it happens,” Harley said after several Hawthorn players vowed they would hit the Cats hard.
“We’ll play the way we want to play. It’s a cliché, but [we’ll] control the things we can control and our tactics will be our tactics.”
A number of sides have come out swinging against the Cats this season with limited success given that they have lost just one match.
“We think we are a pretty level-headed sort of group and pretty experienced, age-wise we are a pretty mature 22. Our average age is 24-25 with a lot of 100-150 game players, so physically we can handle that.
“We have got some pretty competitive players and some hard players who like to play the game hard and tough, and also very fair.
“I would not have thought there would have been too many of them taking a backwards step.”
Harley also said the Cats would not be targeting the injured ribs of Luke Hodge on Saturday.
“I would not have thought so. He is going to have a Hawthorn jumper on like 21 other blokes out there. They are the opposition and you go out there to play them hard and fair and play the ball.”
But he did confirm that stopping the dominance of Hodge would be a key plank in the Cats’ plans this week.
"He seems to have mastered that half-back role at the moment and sets up their play quarter-back style," Harley said.
"Our forwards will spend a bit of time scouting what he has done and the best way to go about it. I have got the utmost confidence in Ken Hinkley who does our forward scouting and our players around that area that they'll come up with a plan, not just for Hodge but for the defence of their whole team.
"They have got that cluster, then they've got Trent Croad who is a fantastic defender and some running players in [Grant] Birchall and the like.
"[Hodge] is a really crucial player for them but one of plenty that we've got to put a fair bit of time into."
Harley said the several first-time grand final faces in the Geelong line-up would be urged to just be as professional as they had all year.
"They have just got to keep their focus as they have when it comes to actually preparing for the game," Harley said.
"At a footy club you try and create a culture where you instil that into the players to be really professional and prepared when you go out to play and what they do during the week.
"So if there are questions to be asked by some of those guys to the other players who have experienced [grand finals] then I am sure they'll ask them and the answer will be pretty simple: 'just keep it as real as you can'."
