This Saturday, Hawthorn will be aiming to reach the 100 wins milestone against an opposition VFL-AFL club for the first time.

The Hawks’ Round 1 win against North Melbourne took them to 99 wins against the Kangaroos, compared to 78 defeats and two draws. Hawthorn’s next highest win tallies are 94 against Sydney and 87 versus Melbourne.

Blundstone Arena in Hobart will this week become the 34^th ground at which Hawthorn has played a VFL-AFL game. However, it is not the first time Hawthorn has played in Hobart. In fact, Hawthorn’s highest ever VFL-AFL score was recorded in the Tasmanian capital.

The Hawks’ sole previous game in Hobart was played at North Hobart Oval in Round 6 1991 against Fitzroy, with Hawthorn winning 36.15.231 to 11.8.74. The goal-kickers were headed by Ben Allan (7), Darren Jarman (7), Jason Dunstall (6), Paul Hudson (5) and Anthony Condon (4).

At the time, the winning margin of 157 was also a club record, but it has subsequently been eclipsed by margins of 165 (Port Adelaide 2011), 162 (GWS 2012) and 160 (Essendon 1992).

A further similarity with the previous Hawthorn game in Hobart is that 2022 will the first year since 1991 when Hawthorn has played at two new venues in the one season. In that season, like this one, the first new venue saw a heavy loss, with an 86-point loss at Football Park, being that year’s equivalent to this season’s 67-point defeat in Darwin.

If playing in Hobart isn’t enough of a good omen for this week’s game, then there is also the factor of playing North Melbourne at a new interstate venue.

Hawthorn’s first VFL-AFL game outside Victoria was against North Melbourne. That clash, between the previous season’s Grand Finalists, was at the SCG in Round 10 1979 in front of a crowd of 31,395. North (with an 8-1 record) were favourites, but it was the reigning Premiers Hawthorn (4-5) who prevailed, winning 23.18.156 to 16.9.105. The Hawks trailed by 11 points at half-time, but a stunning 9.4 to 2.2 third quarter turned the game right around.

19-year-old, John Kennedy Jnr., in just his fifth League game, was rated among the best, along with Peter Russo, Leigh Matthews, Peter Murnane, Michael Tuck and Norm Goss. The lasting memory of the game was provided by Matthews, who kicked a goal which many rated among the very best of the 915 he scored in his 332-game career.

Last week’s Footy Flashbacks observed that Luke Breust needed six more goals to join John Peck on 475 goals in equal seventh place on the Hawks’ all-time goals list, without expecting that he would reach the target in just one more match. Once he claims outright seventh, Breust can then set his sights on sixth place which is currently held by Jarryd Roughead with 578 goals.

And speaking of John Peck, this week’s game is being played on a date, 23 July, which will forever be synonymous with Peck. In perhaps the most memorable Hawthorn home and away game in history, on 23 July 1960, after 35 years in the League, Hawthorn finally won at Victoria Park, doing so by the barest of margins, one point, with Peck kicking the winner after the siren.

After a tight game all day, Collingwood hit the front late in the last term and held a five-point lead heading into time on. Hawthorn had the ball constantly in the forward line, without scoring, until the final passage of play saw John Peck mark in the pocket. At this point, the siren sounded. It did not faze Peck, who calmly steered through the winning goal, as Hawthorn won - 7.16.58 to 7.15.57.

Peck remains one of only three Hawks to win a game with a goal after the siren, the others being Gary Buckenara in 1987 and Ben Dixon in 2001.

This inaugural victory at Victoria Park presaged a seismic shift in the balance of football power. By 1960, Collingwood had won 13 premierships to Hawthorn’s none. In the ensuing six decades, Collingwood has added only two more, while Hawthorn has won 13.

Hawthorn has recorded three century scores in a season for the first time since 2018, with scores of 120 (Round 2), 117 (Round 10) and 102 (Round 18). There were seven century scores in 2018, but just two in 2019, and one each in 2020 and 2021.

It is now exactly 10 years since Hawthorn last lost a game after recording a century. That was in Round 19 2012, when Hawthorn lost by two points to Geelong, in a game most Hawks will not wish to remember. In contrast, in that ten-year period, from late 2012 to present, Hawthorn has won eight games when the opposition has reached 100, most recently against Brisbane Lions in Launceston in Round 10 this season.

Hawthorn has two Rising Star nominations in the same season for the first time since 2018, with Josh Ward joining Jai Newcombe as a nominee this week. In 2018, the two nominees, nominated consecutively in Rounds 20 and 21, were Harry Morrison and James Worpel.

Hawthorn has played 58 games in Round 19, recording 32 wins and 26 losses (with a bye in 1991). Hawthorn won five consecutive Round 19 games from 2014 to 2018, however, the sequence was broken with defeat by Brisbane Lions in Launceston in 2019 and, after no Round 19 in 2020, the Hawks lost to Adelaide in Round 19 last season.

20 years ago, in Round 19 2002, Hawthorn scored a thrilling eight-point Friday night win over Collingwood, after trailing by the same margin at half time. Simon Cox was the star with 27 disposals, and he kicked the sealing goal, while others in the best players were Campbell Brown, Shane Crawford, Nathan Thompson, Nick Holland, Kris Barlow and Angelo Lekkas.

40 years ago, in Round 19 1982, at Princes Park, Leigh Matthews continued his stellar run of form with an eight-goal haul against a Collingwood side which performed much better than their lowly position on the ladder might have indicated. The Magpies hit the front just before three quarter-time but in the last quarter Matthews put the issue beyond doubt, with the Hawks winning 20.20.140 to 16.22.118. As well as Matthews, Michael Tuck and Terry Wallace were also outstanding with 34 and 30 disposals respectively.

Lance Franklin’s 13 goals in 2012 set a new club record against North Melbourne, breaking the previous high of 10 kicked jointly by Alec Albiston (1940) and Jason Dunstall (1988).

Dunstall holds the individual goal-kicking record for Round 19, setting it in 1996 when he kicked 14 against Footscray at Waverley on a Saturday night.