Hmm I think I need to post my strategy when dealing with hoplites + infantry.
Do not forget that hoplites have only one attack direction and it is a very long yet slow one. The other infantry will have 3-4 attack directions, and it is probably the opposite of hoplite. Fast, but less reach.
-Always try to stay near the hoplite, possibly very near that his spear won't be useful much. During this time, focus on the other infantries attacks.
-There will be times where you will have to be in the perfect range of the hoplite. So unless they attack at the same time; simply block the infantry attack then use a downblock if you think you'll get attacked by the hoplite. It works if they don't attack at the same time. If they attack at the same time, well it was 1v2 already and they did a good teamjob.
-Anticipating the movements of the hoplite is easy to predict. He/she will be most likely to stay in ideal distance. So it might be easier to leave him/her out of his reach. You said you have 8 athletics, well that is also nearly the maximum for the hoplite too (lvl 30+ most likely). You should be able to leave it out.
Following these guidelines, enemy hoplites are not much of a problem for me in melee fighting. They can be shut down pretty easily, if you have few cards in your hand.
-All in all, awlpikes might not be the best weapon to deal with hoplites. The weapon itself is designed to do big damage to enemy infantry and cavalry, I think. Against a hoplite, I'd reccommend using overhead maybe. I'm not an awlpiker. From what I see in siege server, you can quickly grasp the techniques of dealing with them, no rules.