Luke Hodge Q & A: Hawks legend and Lions recruit reveals his plans for 2018 and Alastair Clarkson’s strange text message on trade day
LUKE Hodge reveals his plans for 2018, what number he wants to wear at Brisbane and a strange message from Alastair Clarkson on trade deadline day in an extensive Q&A.
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LUKE Hodge’s phone vibrated as the clock ticked towards deadline.
It was Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson and with one hour left in the trade period, the message read: “Listen mate, I don’t think this is going to go through”.
Hodge took a quick glance and then returned to his lunch with Jonathan Brown. By 1.15pm the bill was sorted and Hodge replied, “What’s going on?”
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The shock Brisbane Lions recruit reveals Clarko’s strange text, how training for a marathon convinced him he could play on, what number he wants to wear, how he’s studying his new teammates and more in an extensive Q & A.
SAM LANDSBERGER: You’ve got two dates with your old team. Now that the fixture is locked in, how does that feel?
LUKE HODGE: You get whispers here and there and I initially heard it was going to be Round 1. I was with a couple of (Hawthorn) boys when I heard that, I went away with about 10 or 12 with them last week. It’s going to be weird, but once you get into pre-season you’ve got six months of training with new teammates. I played 13 years with Roughie and 12 years with Birch, who are two of my closest mates, so no doubt it’ll be weird and there’ll be a little bit of banter leading into the game. But once the siren starts you’re out there to do a role.
The second game is in Tassie. Would you’ve preferred the G?
We’ve played in Tassie so many times it’ll be good to go down there. I think we’ve only got one game at the G, which is a little disappointing, but you can’t get too worked up over the draw.
When do you move up to Brisbane?
We start (pre-season) on November 20, so I’ll go up a few days before that. The kids are still at school and kinder, so Loz will bring the boys up after Christmas.
Have you found a place to live?
We went up for two days when we realised this was a big chance, and it was surprising how much we got done. We found a school, we found a place to stay, and we’d never really been to Brisbane. The last time I was there was 2008 and Lauren had never been there. We went for a drive in the city and it was such a nice city, it was 30 degrees and we’re looking forward to the footy journey, but also an adventure as well.
When was that trip?
Around prelim time. It was weird because it was footy time and it was big in Melbourne, but not much AFL up there. I love footy, I watch as much as I can, but that was kind of appealing as well. You’d open the paper and you wouldn’t find AFL until page five.
Which of the Lions boys have you met?
I’ve got a few messages and ran into a few of the guys when we did that tour. I had a good chat to Beamsy (captain Dayne Beams) the other day and I obviously talk to Fages (coach Chris Fagan) a lot.
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What’s your knowledge of the Lions’ list like? Are there some kids you’re particularly excited to mentor?
I got Fages to put some tapes on a computer when I went away. A 14-hour flight goes pretty quick when your attention is on something, and I watched a lot of the Geelong game and then I was halfway through the Carlton game on the way back. I’m going away with friends in a few days and I’ll take that away.
But off-field they look really stable. You look at Fages, Nobes (football boss David Noble), Swanny (chief executive Greg Swann) — I think good teams have a very stable off-field. And then the most pleasing thing is what’s coming from the players. (Dayne) Zorko said after the last game they wanted the season to keep going, even though they finished on the bottom. I know (Josh) Schache left but young kids want to stay there now and then you look at Charlie Cameron who wants to come home.
So who stood out on the tapes?
It was more looking at the positional changes, this next trip I’ll zone more in on individual players and what their strengths are and what their weaknesses are.
When you were weighing it up did you speak to Sam Mitchell or Jordan Lewis?
Not really. I spoke to Mitch on Grand Final day, but that was more the family side of things. What he found worked and what he found didn’t work. I’ll talk to Lewy prior to going up, because you don’t want to overstep the mark. You’ve got to soak it up and see how the players are. Even though I’m a very vocal person, I think the first few months will be having a look around and seeing who does what and who says what.
Three Hawthorn legends in new colours. Is the one-club badge of honour now a thing of the past?
People say you’re not a one-club player any more. But what we achieved at the footy club is never going to go away. We put in all we could — me for 16 years, Lewy for 12 years and Mitch for 15 years. And four times every 10 years we’re going to go back and celebrate what we achieved.
When it first came out that I was thinking about doing this, a lot of Hawthorn supporters were in the emotional stage of, ‘You can’t do that’. But I had a book signing out there last Saturday and the queue was longer than we expected, and there was so much support. I retired for a reason, and that’s to make sure the younger guys kept playing because we had a lot of senior guys coming back in, and Fages talked me out of retirement.
Where were you when the trade went through?
I was actually having lunch with Jonathan Brown. Deadline was 2pm and we’re sitting there and I got a text from Clarko at about 1pm saying, ‘Listen mate, I don’t think this is going to go through’.
I was very confident it was going to happen and I didn’t respond. I finished lunch with Browny and got home at 1.15pm and sent Clarko a text saying, ‘What’s going on?’ but then (manager) Paul Connors sent me a text of Nobes and Wrighty (Hawthorn list boss Graham Wright) doing the paperwork.
Was Clarko having a joke or was he being serious?
I dunno. He messaged me before seeing if I was still in the (United) States, because he’s over there at the moment, but we sort of didn’t cross paths. He wanted to catch up before I moved up.
How many games is realistic to play next year?
I’m not 100 per cent sure. Fages has flagged 15-16 if all goes well, because he wants to make sure I’m energetic and not dragging through the games. But if I play a certain amount of games with younger guys and try to give some advice and direction, he also wants to see how they also go without a senior player there. To see who wants to talk and take that next step as well.
It’s been reported that when this came out, Clarko offered you can another year at Hawthorn. Why did you say no?
We were actually talking about my book, he was helping with different parts, and I sort of flagged with him that I’m thinking about this. I went back again and spoke to him again and he had a bit more of a think and was like, ‘Do you want another year?’.
I said to him the reason I retired from Hawthorn was the reason I retired. We’ve got three senior players (Ben Stratton, Grant Birchall and James Frawley) coming back in. Having a 33-year-old in there when there are four or five young blokes that are playing senior football, they should be taking that role. Whereas Brisbane probably lack that senior player. I know they’ve got (Daniel) Rich down there, but all the rest are probably 18 to 22 or 23-year-olds.
So (Clarko) did throw out a ‘Do you want another year’, but I think that was just a token one.
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Have you thought about what number you might take?
There’s a few numbers there — I think No. 2, 16 and 19. I sent back a couple to them, but they’ll go through a process and come back with what number they want us to wear.
No. 2 is Roughie’s number, would that appeal? I think 15 is Zorko, that’s probably off limits …
When I was up there I had dinner with Zorks and said, ‘Any chance?’ and he said, ‘Find a new number, buddy’. Anyone who’s coming off three best-and-fairests you probably can’t nudge out. No. 15 is a special number, I wore it my whole career at Hawthorn, but this is a new journey now. No. 2 would be nice because I’d probably do a jumper swap with Roughie, but I’m not that fazed with it.
When you retired, did you say the body was tired?
Nah, nah. I said at the best-and-fairest that the mind and body still feels well, but the reason I’m giving it up is because of the players. One of the main reasons that made me think about coming out (of retirement) was I started training for the New York marathon. I actually talked three mates into doing it and I’ve pulled out — we’re flying over to watch them do it next weekend. But we were doing some long runs and I was pulling up really good.
How long?
We got to about 17km on Saturday mornings, and that’s where Fages started to say, ‘How’s the body feeling?’. And I know football is totally different to running, but the fact I could pull up from those runs shows the body still has something left.
I’m not expected to play every game and I played 19 games this year plus Box Hill, which is 20. So 20 games in a season for a 33-year-old and pulling up OK, if I’m aiming to play 15-16 and have that rest when I need it, then there’s no reason (I can’t).
Where were these 17km runs?
We were running with Prosport, an ex-teammate Tim Hazell’s group. We ran The Tan, all around Richmond area, through the city and that — it was nice and early in the morning so no one could see us.
You shot the lights out at Channel 7 and Triple M this year. Is media still the pathway, or is it coaching now?
I guess this is where I’m going to understand whether I want to go and do it or not. For the last five years I’ve always had an idea of media is the way I want to go. Calling the games and explaining them, because when you’re on a list you can’t explain a game with exactly what you want to say. You’re either giving away parts of your game style, or how you play against teams.
But what I’ve really got now is, not a passion, but something to see if I want to continue (coaching) after playing with the younger guys last year. Because we had so many injuries it was Sicily, Burton, Brand, Hardwick and Glass and then Gunston also playing half a year down back.
Working with these guys I ultimately took a back step at the end of the year. I wasn’t taking any kick-ins and I wasn’t the kick to go to. The last few games I was reviewing what we did at kick-ins and just trying to help them out. It’s actually pretty rewarding to see a young guy change like that, just through a little bit of advice that I’ve learnt over my career. This pathway will be either confirmation that I want to keep going this way, or something to sit back and go, ‘I tried a little bit, and it wasn’t for me’.
Hodge and Mitchell coaching Hawthorn has a nice ring to it …
When I did the book thing the other day that did get brought up. But who knows, the way Clarko’s going he’ll still be there in another 15 years.
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