Hawks happy as Williams cleared

AAP - Hawthorn has had a bright start to their first AFL grand final week in 17 years, with preliminary final goal-scoring hero Mark Williams cleared to play Geelong in Saturday's decider.

The Hawks sharpshooter was the one player from either grand final side facing a
genuinely nervous wait for the match review panel's assessment of the weekend's
preliminary finals on Monday.
Williams made high contact with veteran St Kilda defender Max Hudghton while the
Saint was bent over the ball late in Saturday night's big win by the Hawks at the
MCG.
But he was saved grand final heartbreak when the panel on Monday cleared him of any
wrongdoing, ruling contact was made only to Hudghton's back and not to his neck or
head.
Williams' clearance to play is crucial to the Hawks' chances of upsetting the Cats
on Saturday, given his role as a small, agile foil to more prominent forward targets
Lance Franklin and Jarryd Roughead.
He gave a timely demonstration of his value against St Kilda on Saturday night,
booting 5.4 to ensure the Hawks had no problems kicking a big score despite regular
matchwinner Franklin having a rare quiet game.
It was Williams' biggest return of the year and took his tally to 43 goals from 21
games for the season so far.
"It's fantastic, Mark played really well on the weekend," teammate Trent Croad said
on Monday of Williams being cleared.
"He really stepped up and the best thing about our forwards, they're all combining
and each one of them are playing their own part.
"At any individual time one of them can step up and that's been a huge strong point
for us this year, but having Mark available will be great for us."
Minor incidents from Saturday night's game involving two other Hawks were also
reviewed.
Ruckman Robert Campbell was cleared over contact with Saints skipper Nick Riewoldt,
as was midfielder Jordan Lewis over contact with David Armitage, with the impact
deemed too light to constitute an offence in both cases.
The good news from the match review panel came on top of positive news on the injury
front, with the Hawks certain Luke Hodge (ribs), Croad (foot) and Franklin (thumb)
will play on Saturday.
Hodge, who was coughing up blood after being crunched in a marking contest by Justin
Koschitzke on Saturday night, can expect to be tested physically by Geelong at every
opportunity, although Cats skipper Tom Harley said on Monday they would not go out
of their way to target him.
"He's a very tough strong player and he's going to have the Hawthorn jumper on like
21 other blokes out there," Harley said.
"They're the opposition and you go out to play them hard and fair and play the ball,
so I wouldn't have thought you'd necessarily run out of your way to do anything like
that."
Croad said there was no doubt Hodge would stand up to any punishment delivered by
the Cats and would continue to courageously place himself in the way of the
opposition's leading forwards.
"He'll be fine. It's the way he plays his football, it's the way he contributes to
the team and he plays his role in helping us all out in that way," Croad said.
"It's just a common week for Hodgey to be bashing and crashing into packs. Nothing
much fazes him."