This Friday night’s Preliminary Final between Hawthorn and Geelong was always going to be a built-up affair. While the players and coaches will spend the next few days trying to play down the history between the two clubs, Geelong’s digital media team has embraced the elephant in the room.

Geelong has encouraged supporters to tweet about Friday night’s match using the hash-tag #thedozen. If the Cats beat the Hawks on Friday, it will be 12 in a row. As all footy supporters know, the Hawks famously upset the Cats in the 2008 Grand Final, but haven’t beaten them since.

There’s no doubt supporters of both clubs will be nervous in the lead-up to Friday’s match but, judging by the response on Twitter, many Cats fans are confident they can maintain their winning streak.

Hawthorn’s official Twitter feed has been a little more reserved.

The Cats have interacted with fans in a range of ways this season.

Geelong has previously encouraged supporters to embrace the #catseatbirds hash-tag – that’s ‘Cats eat birds’, not ‘Cat seat birds’ for those who are a little confused – and has asked supporters to vote on whether skipper Joel Selwood should pick heads or tails in the pre-match coin-toss each week.

A crowd of more than 90,000 is expected for Friday night’s clash.