New Hawthorn captain Jarryd Roughead has drawn a line under the Luke Hodge suspension saga, agreeing it was a huge decision but a sign of the AFL heavyweights’ maturity.

Hodge will be absent from the Hawks round one match with Essendon after breaching team standards and Roughead said it was important his club applied the same rules to a club legend as their youngest rookie.

“It was (a huge decision) but … he set the standards,” Roughead told reporters on Thursday. “He’s been the one in my position for the last six years and when someone stuffs up, whether it be Hodgey or player 44, you’ve got to cut their heads off, deal with it and we’ve dealt with it.”