HAWTHORN has the opportunity to finish 2015 with its highest ever percentage at the end of a home and away season.
Currently the Hawks’ percentage is 156.8, ahead of the current club home and away record of 154.6 set in 2012, so a reasonable winning margin against Carlton this Saturday should produce a new record.
There have only been three previous seasons (1971, 1989 and 2012) when Hawthorn’s final percentage has been above 150. In all those cases Hawthorn finished on top of the ladder.
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If Hawthorn beats Carlton this weekend, it will take the winning sequence against the Blues to 13, the club’s equal sixth longest winning sequence against any opponent.
Hawthorn’s list of consecutive wins against other clubs is headed by 22 consecutive wins against Melbourne from 1973 to 1984, followed by St Kilda (20), Richmond (16), Fitzroy (15), North Melbourne (14) and South Melbourne (13).
Prior to the current sequence, Hawthorn’s previous record winning run against the Blues was seven from 1984 to 1986.
Overall, Hawthorn has won 60 and lost 102 of its 162 games against Carlton.
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This will be the first time Hawthorn has played a home game against Carlton since Round 6, 2009. That game was a thriller with Hawthorn winning 16.10 (106) to Carlton’s 15.12 (102).
An MCG crowd of 69,814 saw Jarryd Roughead star for the Hawks with a career-high eight goals (a figure he equalled against West Coast last season).
However, this was not enough to earn him the three Brownlow votes, which went to Brad Sewell for his 32-disposal and 10-tackle game.
On the other hand, Carlton’s Brendan Fevola did not get a Brownlow vote for also managing to kick eight goals.
Hawthorn has not lost a home game against Carlton since the 2000 season.
Beginning with Ben Dixon’s after the siren goal to deliver victory in 2001, Hawthorn has won its last six home games against Carlton.
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Remarkably, this week is just the second occasion on which Hawthorn and Carlton have ever been drawn to meet each other in the final round of a home and away season.
The only previous occasion in the 90 years in which they have played together in the VFL-AFL happened as recently as 2008.
On that occasion a big Docklands crowd of 49,057 saw Hawthorn win by 78 points – 24.15.159 to 12.9.81, but most of the interest was in the fact that Lance Franklin reached 100 goals for the season, while Carlton’s Brendan Fevola failed to do the same.
Another opponent that the Hawks have rarely met at the end of the season is Collingwood, with one clash being way back in 1942 before other recent ones in 2010 and 2014.
Of the newer entrants to the competition the only ones that are yet to face the Hawks in the final round are GWS and Port Adelaide. By way of contrast, Hawthorn has met Geelong 13 times in the final round, followed by Essendon 12 times and Melbourne 10 times.
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Victory against the Brisbane Lions last Saturday means that for the third consecutive season, Hawthorn has won all its Aurora Stadium games. The Hawks most recent loss at the venue was in Round 5, 2012 against Sydney.
Since then, Hawthorn has won 15 consecutive games in Launceston, its best sequence of results at any venue in club history.
Early this season Hawthorn concluded a sequence of 13 consecutive wins at the MCG, while other lengthy winning runs in the club’s history include 12 at Princes Park in 1988-89, and 11 at Waverley in both 1989-90 and 1991-92.
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Hawthorn needs a crowd of 55,402 this Saturday to make this the most attended home and away season in the club’s history.
Currently 866,735 fans have attended the club’s 21 games, making an average crowd of 41,273. The record average is 41,915 set in 2010.
Even if the crowd falls short of a new record it will continue the trend where the seven most recent seasons have been the seven best attended seasons in the club’s history.
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Hawthorn takes an unbeaten Round 23 record into the coming weekend.
There has only been a Round 23 in seven previous AFL seasons - 1991, 1992, 1994, and from 2011 onwards.
Hawthorn had the bye in 1992 and recorded good wins in the other six years. This will be just the fourth occasion when it is the final round of the home and away season.
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The best individual tallies for Hawthorn against the Blues are nine by Peter Knights in 1985, eight by Garry Young (in a losing side) in 1959 and another eight by Jarryd Roughead in 2009.
Peter Hudson, Leigh Matthews and Jason Dunstall all had a top score of seven goals against the Blues – in 1968, 1978 and 1989 respectively.
Dunstall holds the Round 23 record with a tally of six, which included his 1000th career goal, against Brisbane at the Gabba in 1994. Jack Gunston went close to equaling it with five goals against Collingwood in Round 23 last season.
