Hawthorn is in top position on the ladder after Round 2 for just the fourth time in club history. The three previous instances were in 1957, 1983 and 2008, seasons which resulted in a third-place finish and two Flags.

Jack Gunston has entered the top ten Hawthorn all-time goalkickers. His three goals on Saturday night took his Hawthorn career tally to 384 goals, one ahead of Alec Albiston on 383.

When Albiston’s Hawthorn career ended in 1949, he held the club goals’ record, but now has slipped to 11^th place, thanks to the galaxy of star forwards who have played for Hawthorn over the past few decades.

This Sunday, Hawthorn will be endeavouring to win the opening three games of the season for just the fourth time in the past 30 years. The only previous times in that period when the Hawks began with three consecutive wins were 2001, 2008 and 2014.

Since entering the League in 1925, Hawthorn has begun the season with two consecutive wins on 17 occasions and it has gone on to make the Finals in 15 of them. The two exceptions were 1964 and 1972.

Hawthorn has kept its opposition to a pair of scores below 60 points in the opening two rounds of a VFL-AFL season for the first time. This season, North Melbourne managed 58 in Round 1 and Port Adelaide 56 in Round 2. The Hawks almost achieved this feat in 1999 when they restricted Collingwood to 59 in a Round 1 victory before conceding exactly 60 in a narrow loss to Adelaide in Round 2.

The attack is also functioning well in 2022 with last Saturday night’s score being the highest since recording 18.16.124 against Carlton at Docklands in Round 18 2018.

Mitch Lewis’s eight goals so far in 2022 have given him a share of the lead in the AFL goalkicking with Isaac Heeney (Sydney) and Nick Larkey (North Melbourne). Lewis thus the first Hawthorn forward to be on top of the AFL goalkicking table after a completed round since Luke Breust shared the lead with 10 goals after Round 3 2014.

The current Hawthorn team has a higher component of Victorian players than its recent predecessors. In both the opening two rounds, there have been 18 Victorians among the 23 team members. By way of contrast, the most recent Premiership team in 2015 contained only 10 Victorians in the 22 players.

Hawthorn has won 22 of its last 26 games against Carlton, including a sequence of 14 consecutive wins from 2005 to 2016. However, overall, Hawthorn trails the head-to-head against Carlton by 65 to 104 after 169 games.

Round 3 has historically been one of Hawthorn’s best rounds, with 51 victories and 46 losses from 97 matches. The Hawks had a remarkable Round 3 record between 1971 and 1992, winning 19 and losing just three.

Hawthorn also did well in Round 3 in the Clarkson era, winning 12 of 17, including six in a row from 2011 to 2016. After losses to Gold Coast (2017) and Richmond (2018), the Hawks bounced back to the Round 3 winners list versus North Melbourne (2019) and Richmond (2020), before a narrow loss to Geelong in Round 3 last season.

10 years ago, in Round 3 2012, Sam Mitchell and Shaun Burgoyne played their 200^th AFL games as the Hawks thrashed Adelaide by 56 points at the MCG – 21.14.140 to 12.12.84. Hawthorn had 12 individual goal-scorers, while the Brownlow votes went to Josh Gibson, Brendan Whitecross, and Brent Guerra.

20 years ago, in Round 3 2002, the Hawks finally secured their first win for the season, overcoming a three-quarter time deficit, to secure a battling 10-point victory against Fremantle in Launceston. Shane Crawford was best-on-ground.

40 years ago, in Round 3 1982, Hawthorn kicked a then club record score and winning margin as they thrashed Footscray by 143 points – 28.26.194 to 7.9.51. In his first game since crossing from Melbourne, Michael Byrne kicked eight goals, which remains easily a record for a Hawthorn debut, while Leigh Matthews contributed six majors. Others in the best players were David Polkinghorne, Gary Buckenara, Richard Loveridge and Kelvin Moore.  The win put Hawthorn on top of the ladder, ahead of Richmond on percentage.

50 years ago, in Round 3 1972, the Hawks won their third consecutive game, beating Geelong by 42 points at Waverley. In the process, they went to the top of the ladder, ahead of the only other unbeaten team Essendon on percentage. In the absence of Peter Hudson, stand-in full-forward, Charlie Grummisch, kicked five goals.

70 years ago, in Round 3 1952, Hawthorn recorded an upset win against Melbourne at the MCG kicking 10.14.74 to 8.12.60. Tom Allsop booted three goals.

The individual goalkicking record for Hawthorn in Round 3 is 11 kicked by Leigh Matthews versus Essendon at Waverley in 1973. Michael Moncrieff had a liking for Round 3, kicking 10 in 1974 versus South Melbourne and again in 1976 against Collingwood.

Hawthorn’s great goal-kickers never managed big bags against Carlton. Peter Hudson, Leigh Matthews and Jason Dunstall all had a top score of seven goals against the Blues. The best individual tallies for Hawthorn against Carlton 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.