By NOEL MURPHY
HAWTHORN hoodoo Jeff Kennett was uncharacteristically quiet ahead of the preliminary final clash between the Cats and the Hawks.
With this week’s game crucial for both sides’ grand final dream, he was saying nothing that might possibly derail Hawthorn’s prospects.
“He’s says thanks for the invitation but he’s not going to talk this week,” his personal assistant told the Independent.
The former Hawthorn president and Victorian Premier was credited with the “Kennett Curse” spurring the Cats to 11 successive wins over the Hawks.
“What they don’t have, I think, is the quality of some of our players; they don’t have the psychological drive we have. We’ve beaten Geelong when it matters,” Kennett famously said.
The brash talk, ahead of Geelong’s first-round match against the Hawks, followed the Cats’ grand final loss to Hawthorn in 2008. Geelong resolved afterward to never lose to Hawthorn again.
