IT’S ON AGAIN

Clarko says bring on the Cats

HAWTHORN coach Alastair Clarkson has challenged his players to lift ahead of their qualifying final against bitter rival Geelong.

The four-time premiership coach last night said his Hawks had to improve on their effort against Collingwood to be able to match it with the “red-hot” Cats.

The Hawks, shooting for a fourth-straight flag, fell over the line by a point against Collingwood last night in a thrilling battle at the MCG.

The Cats and the Hawks will face off under lights at the MCG on Friday, September 9, with Clarkson conscious that there is work to do before then.

“We’ll look at some things over the next 10 days and get ourselves ready for a pretty red-hot Cats side,” he said.

“They were pretty impressive (against Melbourne) and we’ll have to play a bit better than we did (yesterday) if the two sides play to the form that they did this weekend, then it’s going to be pretty hard to knock off the Cats, but different weekend, different game, different opponent. We’ll see how we go.”

After Geelong smashed Melbourne on Saturday, coach Chris Scott said past history was irrelevant as the Cats gear up for an epic qualifying final.