Geelong’s triple-premiership backman Matthew Scarlett says the Cats will beat Hawthorn for the 12th successive time in Friday night’s AFL preliminary final because the Hawks will struggle to handle the pressure.

Hawthorn haven’t defeated Geelong since the 2008 grand final.

But they appear well placed to do so at the MCG on Friday night, boosted by a week’s rest and a good run of form including eight wins in their past nine games.

“There’s going to be a huge amount of pressure and I think Geelong will be able to handle that pressure a bit better than Hawthorn and they’ve proved over the past few years that they enjoy playing the Hawks and they’ll definitely be up for it,” Scarlett said on SEN radio on Thursday.

“No doubt, Hawthorn are playing better football and are in better form than Geelong but I don’t think it really counts for much on Friday night.

“The hard part with having that week off is you’re not really sure how to prepare.

“I think at Geelong a couple of times, we might have trained a little bit too hard and a couple of times we might not have done enough, so you’re not really sure if you’ve prepared really well.”

The six-time All-Australian, who retired after the 2012 season and now plays in the Geelong Football League, says Cats defender Tom Lonergan will continue his dominance over Hawthorn’s key forward Lance Franklin.

“Geelong’s defenders have played really well on ‘Buddy’ Franklin with Lonergan and Harry Taylor on (Jarryd) Roughead, have done the job on those boys, so if they can do that again Friday night and stop their forwards, I think the Cats should win,” Scarlett said.

“Tommy Lonergan’s had his (Franklin’s) measure.”