HAWTHORN has the chance to extend its best ever winning sequence against Collingwood on Friday night.

The Hawks have won their last seven against the Magpies with the most recent loss being the 2011 Preliminary Final.

Since then Hawthorn has beaten Collingwood three times in 2012, twice in 2013 and twice again last season, in Rounds 14 and 23.

That win at the end of the 2014 home-and-away season saw the Hawks beat the previous record of six recorded on three separate occasions (1982-84, 1985-88 and 1989-92).

In fact, in the period between 1982 and 1992, Hawthorn won 18 of a possible 20 against Collingwood, with the only losses coming by 11 points in 1985 and 10 points in 1989.

The overall head-to-head between the two clubs has Hawthorn on 63 and Collingwood 96.

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Last Saturday’s crowd of 62,500 was the third largest ever for a home and away game between Hawthorn and Essendon.

The only larger ones were also both at Hawthorn home games at the MCG – 77,278 in the final round of 2009 and 64,537 in Round 14 2011.

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After the 1989 Grand Final, it was often said that if the game had gone another five minutes Geelong would have won.

In Round 1 of the following season, Hawthorn had shown what an extra 120 minutes could do with a 115 point mauling of the Cats.

A quarter of a century ago this week, in Round 14 1990, Geelong got another opportunity to take on the reigning back-to-back Premiers.

Once again, Hawthorn proved its superiority winning by 68 points – 18.10.118 to 7.8.50.

It was some of the younger brigade leading the way with Paul Dear kicking four goals, Stephen Lawrence taking 13 marks and Anthony Condon accumulating 28 disposals.

To add to the optimistic mood of those wearing brown and gold, it was also announced that Chris Mew, who had retired at the end of the previous season, would be returning.

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Hawthorn has played 88 matches in Round 14, recording 42 wins and 46 losses (and had the bye in both 1993 and 1994).

The Hawks have won their last five games in this round beating the Western Bulldogs (2010), Essendon (2011), Carlton (2012), Brisbane Lions (2013) and Collingwood last season.

The start of the current sequence was five years ago, in Round 14 2010, a game which saw the Hawks extended their winning streak to seven with a nail-biting win against fellow finals aspirant the Western Bulldogs – 12.7.79 to 11.10.76.

Sam Mitchell and Luke Hodge both had 28 disposals and were the two Hawks who received Brownlow votes.

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However, the current Hawks have a way to go to equal the club record of ten consecutive Round 14 wins between 1967 and 1976.

One of those ten consecutive wins took place 40 years ago this week.

It was a low scoring affair, in Round 14 1975, with a crowd of 14,008 braving the wintery conditions at Waverley to see Hawthorn 9.10.64 defeat lowly South Melbourne 5.9.39.

Several other games that day were much less affected by rain, most notably the one involving Hawthorn’s rival for top spot on the ladder, Carlton, who booted an incredible 14.1 in the second quarter alone, in a fiery clash with Essendon at Windy Hill.

Last week’s Flashbacks mentioned the eight games which were originally credited to Leigh Matthews when he played for Victoria on the same day Hawthorn was playing. This was one of those occasions. 

In the absence of Matthews, the League’s leading gaolkicker in 1975, the Hawks main source of goals was Ian Scrimshaw who booted a career high four.

Recruited from Blackburn, Scrimshaw played 19 games for the Hawks in 1974-75, before continuing his career at Richmond where he was an unlucky omission from that club’s 1980 Premiership team.

Apart from Scrimshaw, others in the best players were Bohdan Jaworskyj, Ian Bremner, Alan Martello, Kelvin Matthews and Geoff Ablett.

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Fifteen years ago, in Round 14 2000, there was plenty of pre-match drama when Hawthorn’s match at Docklands was shifted from the venue due to the poor quality of the surface.

The decision to relocate the game against St Kilda was only made on the day of the scheduled Saturday night game.

It was played the next afternoon at the MCG and resulted in a big Hawthorn win by 85 points – 27.9.171 to 13.8.86.

What was most notable about the game was that Hawthorn had 16 individual goalkickers, which equaled the VFL-AFL record set by Essendon in 1988.

It remains the record, but two clubs other clubs, West Coast (2005) and Fremantle (2008) now have a share of it.

In the 2000 game, Trent Croad with five goals was the only Hawk to kick more than two and he also contributed five of the team’s nine behinds.

Shane Crawford re-produced some of his Brownlow winning form from the previous season with 36 disposals, while other good players included Daniel Harford and Glenn Bowyer.

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Jason Dunstall holds the Hawthorn record for most goals in a game versus Collingwood, having booted 11 in both 1989 and 1990. Next best was Michael Moncrieff’s 10 in 1976.

The Round 14 individual goal-kicking record for Hawthorn is 12, kicked by Peter Hudson against Footscray at Glenferrie in 1968.