Son of AFL great to make first appearance in VFL
Brisbane fans will get their first proper look at Cooper Hodge with the son of AFL great Luke set to line up for the Lions in the VFL on Saturday.
Cooper has just turned 17, which makes him eligible to run out in the VFL.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Luke Hodge talks about Cooper's day at Hawthorn training.
He will play against Coburg at Barry Plant Park on Saturday.
But the sight of the youngster in a Lions jumper will have Hawthorn fans feeling very worried.
Luke played over 300 games for the Hawks, including captaining the side to their historic premiership three-peat last decade.
He finished his career at the Lions and has remained in Brisbane with his family.
This is where the dilemma comes in for Cooper.
The rising star is facing a very big decision on his AFL future. Both Hawthorn and Brisbane have their eye on Luke Hodge's oldest son, Cooper. Credit: Getty Images
Cooper, who is expected to nominate for next year's AFL draft, will be eligible to join Hawthorn as a father-son selection, but is also a member of Brisbane's academy.
It means he effectively has the choice of which club he wants to join, should they both deem him good enough to make it in the AFL.
Cooper recently joined Hawks training and stayed at the house of recruiter Jarryd Roughead, who is also a close mate of Hodge.
'Yeah, well, they got him down. CJ's brother was out there as well. I think Mark Williams' son was supposed to be out there as well, but he rolled his ankle,' Hodge said on The Agenda Setters.
'It was a good day once again going down there to really convince a young guy to come. They turned on the weather. It was about four degrees down there. I couldn't feel my hands.
'It was another good experience. He went out there and enjoyed the club.'
Hodge was then asked, 'what percentage is he Hawthorn and what percentage is he Brisbane'.
'He's about 50-50,' he joked.
'No, listen, it's a good experience for him. He's a 16-year-old kid who gets the opportunity to go down and spend two days.
'I 100 per cent understand (the level of interest in this), but the only thing is he's a 16-year-old kid who has the flexibility or he's been lucky enough to spend two days at Hawthorn.
'But then on the flip side, with the Brisbane Lions academy, he's been lucky enough over the last two years to be able to enjoy and spend time with some of the players and get coached by Grant Brichall and Mitch Hahn and these kind of guys.
'So he's been very fortunate and he's really loving football at the moment.'
The situation is similar to Sydney star Nick Blakey, who is the son of John Blakey.
John played over 200 games for North Melbourne and over 130 for Fitzroy, but he was an assistant at Sydney and Nick ended up at the Sydney academy.
Nick was eligible as a father-son for North and Brisbane but ultimately elected to be with Sydney. He was taken by the Swans with pick 10 in the 2018 draft, disappointing many North Melbourne fans.
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