Luke Hodge expects this weekend’s Hawthorn v North Melbourne clash to be of great significance to the two coaches in question.
Kangaroos coach Alastair Clarkson has a storied history with the brown and gold, winning four premierships with the Hawks before moving on at the end of 2021.
Hawks mentor Sam Mitchell played in all four of those flags under Clarkson before displacing him in the Waverley Park hot seat.
This Saturday afternoon in Launceston, the pair will coach against each other for the first time when Mitchell’s winless Hawks host Clarkson’s unbeaten Kangaroos.
Former Hawthorn captain Hodge is expecting a fair bit of feeling.
“As much as both coaches are going to say it’s about the side and about us getting a win, it’s definitely personal for both coaches,” Hodge said on SEN’s Sportsday.
“Obviously ‘Clarko’ didn’t leave Hawthorn on the best terms and ‘Mitch’ came in and replaced him. I feel that’s going to be entertaining just in itself with two coaches trying to out-coach each other.
“But on the flip side, I feel that Hawthorn will be comfortable travelling down to Tasmania. It’s not different for them.
“Everyone is expecting North to win. Hawthorn have got something to prove. Their last two performances haven’t been great and it will be a target.
“North are sitting back going, ‘Hang on, we’re going alright here. We won the first one, we went over to Fremantle and we’re 2-0. No one thought we’d be here’, so they’re looking at how good we can be.
“You could tell by Mitch’s disappointment in the press conference after the game, that a lot of the effort was there but it was the polish (lacking). He’ll be making sure that they’re switched on for this weekend because of who they’re playing as well.”
Hodge’s experience of playing against Brisbane coach Chris Fagan suggests to him that both Clarkson and Mitchell will be desperate for victory.
He is expecting each coach to have a point to prove and as a result is not expecting too many niceties prior to the bounce.
“One thing I’ve found over the years is whenever a coach coaches against his old team, whether he was a player or an assistant or coached against someone they were close with, it’s always personal,” he added.
“They want to get the bragging rights. Even when you look at ‘Fages’ (Chris Fagan) versus Hawthorn when he came up there (to Brisbane) and I was still playing at Hawthorn, you could just see how much Fages wanted to beat Hawthorn because that’s where he came from.
“It’s a natural instinct. If you talk to any coach and they say, ‘No it’s not’, they are lying to your face.”
Hodge added: “There would be a shake of hands or a ‘Hi’ if they crossed paths but I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s no crossing of paths between the two of them.
“One might take the long way around to the coaches’ box.”
The Hawks enter this contest off the back of an 81-point loss to Sydney while the Roos will travel again after edging Fremantle by one point in Perth.