Inspirational Hawthorn vice-captain Luke Hodge, whose Norm Smith Medal winning effort on Saturday just a week after he was coughing up blood during the Hawks' preliminary final win over St Kilda is set to go into grand final legend, paid tribute to his co-defenders following the club's shock premiership win over Geelong.
Hodge may have won the accolades but the 24-year-old said the Hawks' unheralded defenders such as Stephen Gilham and Brent Guerra deserved just as much of the credit after the Hawks - despite losing their best defender Trent Croad to a game-ending foot injury in the first half - restricted Geelong to just 11 goals during Saturday's grand final at the MCG.
"The whole back six stuck together like we have all year," Hodge said after the game.
"When Croady went off (Campbell) Brown went back and stood up down there and Steve Gilham and Guerra stood up really well and we had Grant Birchall and Rick Ladson running off (their opponents)."
"It was just a super team effort and we are all just rapt and the maturity we showed as a team was fantastic."
Hodge said just about any of his team-mates could have taken home the Norm Smith Medal such was the evenness of the team's performance.
"I am just as happy getting the (premiership) medal with the rest of the guys (as winning the Norm Smith) because it was such a team effort and all the guys that missed out (on a place in the team) who we trained with all year, this is just as much their win as ours."
Hodge said too much had been made of his injured ribs leading into the game, saying he knew he would always be fit to play.
"Once the game (last week) was finished, there was no problem," he said.
"I didn't understand half the words the doctor was saying to me (in explaining his injury) but from when I came back on (against St Kilda) there were no problems and I knew straight away I would be able to play (in the grand final)."