Four-time Hawthorn champion Luke Hodge has revealed that Mark Ricciuto approached the former Hawks captain in an attempt to lure him to Adelaide in 2017.
Hodge had called time on his 305-game career before coming out of retirement to join Brisbane, with it now revealed that the Crows had also planned to gain Hodge's services.
Ricciuto, a board member at Adelaide, met Hodge at a function and opened up discussions surrounding a potential move to West Lakes.
“It was a low-key chat,” Hodge told SEN’s Whateley.
“It was 2017 after we played over there and I’d announced my retirement and I was actually doing a function at one of his (Ricciuto’s) pubs.
“He grabbed me a beer and said, ‘Did you want to come over here and play a year?’ They were obviously up the top of the ladder and going pretty well.
“He said they needed to help a few of the younger guys not playing every week … just teaching them a thing here or there.
“My mindset was I had a really good year with Hawthorn in a development role with all the young guys coming through, so that was about as far as it went.
“But then obviously Brisbane came along. It was just a better fit.”
Ricciuto chased up Hodge again in 2019, hoping for another chance of luring the Hawks great.
“I spoke to 'Roo' last year and he said, ‘What’s the family position?’, because he knows that we’ve got family over in Adelaide,” the four-time premiership Hawk said.
“I said, ‘We’ve got a baby due in December and our kids are really enjoying it up here (Brisbane)’.
“That was about as far as we got. It was a couple of phone calls.”
Hodge ended his career last year after 346 games between Hawthorn and Brisbane.
