This Saturday, Alastair Clarkson can join John Kennedy Snr as the only Hawthorn premiership coaches to end their coaching careers at the club with a win.

John Kennedy’s last game was the 1976 Grand Final where he coached the club to its third Premiership, all of which had been under his stewardship.

Allan Jeans and Alan Joyce both finished with Elimination Final losses, in 1990 and 1993 respectively, while David Parkin’s last game in charge was a loss at Windy Hill in Round 22 1980. This is the first time that it has been known in advance that it was a Hawthorn Premiership coach’s final game.

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Shaun Burgoyne will become the 15th individual to play 250 games for Hawthorn. The first Hawthorn 250-gamer was Don Scott, against South Melbourne at Waverley on Anzac Day 1979, and the most recent was Jarryd Roughead in Round 20 2017. Hawthorn has a 9-5 win-loss record on the previous 14 occasions when a player has celebrated his 250^th game.

Due to Burgoyne wearing number 67 in one game in 2017, the number 9 will just miss out on becoming the second Hawthorn number to have two players wear it in 250 games (Shane Crawford was the previous number 9 to do so). The one existing number to achieve this feat is number 15, which was worn by Luke Hodge in all 307 games of his career and by Kelvin Moore in 298 of his 300 games.

Number 3 also narrowly missed out on getting dual 250-gamers when Jordan Lewis fell five games short of joining Leigh Matthews. Lewis played the first 19 of his 264 games in number 40.

This week, Hawthorn will be hoping to make it a remarkable 12 wins in a row in the last round of the home and away season. The Hawks’ last defeat in the final home and away game of a season was to Essendon in 2009.

The sequence of 11 final round wins includes two narrow victories against Collingwood in 2010 and 2016, plus memorable come-from-behind away successes against Sydney in 2013 and 2018. The winning run includes eight seasons (2012-19) when the final round was Round 23, one when it was Round 18 (2020), one Round 22 (2010) and one Round 24 (2011).

Hawthorn has not lost a final round match to Richmond since a five-point loss in 1937. Since then, Hawthorn has won in 1959, 1961, 1964 and 2003.

When the clubs last met in the final round in 2003, Hawthorn prevailed by just four points – 11.12.78 to 11.8.74. Nathan Thompson kicked five goals to finish as the club’s leading goalkicker for the season with 38. Shane Crawford got two Brownlow votes, and if he had got the one extra vote, he would have been part of a four-way tie for the Brownlow that year, instead of equal fourth.

Hawthorn has a chance to win its final four games in a season when it does not play Finals for the fifth time in the last quarter century. This most recently happened in Alastair Clarkson’s second season as coach in 2006, as it had in 2003.

In consecutive years in the late 1990s, the Hawks won the last five matches, in 1998 doing so after sitting in last place after recording just three wins to Round 17. The Hawks’ longest ever winning sequence at season’s end without playing Finals was in 1960 when they won the final six games.

Luke Breust is poised to join an elite group of 13 players who have been Hawthorn’s leading goalkicker three or more times.

Breust was previously Hawthorn’s leading goalkicker in 2018 (54 goals) and 2019 (34). He has kicked 33 goals this year, which currently has him six goals ahead of Dylan Moore and Jacob Koschitzke. Breust will join other recent three-time leading goalkickers, Jarryd Roughead and Jack Gunston.

Hawthorn has had some long winning sequences against Richmond, including 16 (1985-94) and 10 (1959-64), but overall, the Hawks trail the Tigers in the head-to-head by 71 to 90.

Last season, Hawthorn had its latest-ever finish to a home and away season, playing its last game on 20 September. In contrast, this season Hawthorn will have its fourth earliest end to a season, with the only earlier finishes being in 1955 (20 August), 1956 (18 August) and the Olympic year of 2000, when the club’s last home and away game was on 4 August and last Final on 18 August.

As well as winning in Round 23 from 2011 to 2019, Hawthorn won its two earlier Round 23 games, in 1991 and 1994, to give it an overall 11-0 Round 23 record. Given that the Hawks also won their only four Round 24 games that gives the club a 15-0 record in the two rounds combined.

10 years ago, in Round 23 2011, Hawthorn defeated the Western Bulldogs by 46 points – 16.17.113 to 10.7.67. Lance Franklin kicked five goals and both Luke Hodge and Brad Sewell had 30 disposals.

30 years ago, in Round 23 1991, Hawthorn thrashed Carlton by 98 points at Princes Park – 23.18.156 to 8.10.58. The highlight was a stunning 9.7 to 0.2 third quarter which took the margin from 38 to 97 points. The goals were shared around with Paul Dear and Jason Dunstall each kicking four, while Anthony Condon secured the three Brownlow votes with an amazing 44 disposal game.

Jason Dunstall had an amazing season against Richmond in 1992, booting a club record 17 goals in Round 7 and following it up with a further bag of 12 in Round 22.

Dunstall also holds the Round 23 record with a tally of six, which included his 1000^th career goal, against Brisbane at the Gabba in 1994.