There are two massive Hawthorn milestones this week with the club playing game number 2100 since joining the VFL-AFL in 1925 and also playing game number 400 at the MCG.

In its 2099 VFL-AFL games played to date, Hawthorn has recorded 1,019 wins, 1,067 losses and 13 draws. 

The club’s highlights in ‘hundredth’ milestone games include the 1000^th game in 1977, which produced a 107-point thrashing of Geelong at Princes Park, and the 1300^th game, the 1989 Second Semi-Final, which saw a memorable win over Essendon at Waverley. The Hawks’ most recent win in these milestone games came in the 1800^th game, when late in the 2011 season, a Docklands crowd of 52,052 saw Hawthorn defeat Carlton by 12 points.

In 399 games at the MCG, the Hawks have recorded 220 wins, 176 defeats and three draws.

Fortunately, the club’s first game there against Melbourne did not set the tone. The 1.7.13 recorded on that occasion remains the club’s lowest score and the 141-point losing margin remains the heaviest defeat. It took until 1938 to record a win at the MCG but, given how much September success the club has achieved at the MCG, it certainly became a happy hunting ground.

Hawthorn has played at the MCG the second most times of any venue behind only Glenferrie Oval (443 games), but now well ahead of Princes Park (230) and Waverley Park (211). 

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The date of this Saturday’s game could not be more auspicious for Hawthorn, with it being 78 years since the club most recently lost on 20 July. Since that 1946 defeat, Hawthorn has won its past seven 20 July games, all of which have been played on Saturdays. 

It is easily the longest span of years without defeat for Hawthorn on any date from April to August, with second place going to 22 June, a date on which the Hawks have not lost since 1957.

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Hawthorn has won 14 of its last 18 games against Collingwood. The Hawks’ sequence of nine consecutive victories against the Magpies from 2012 to 2016 was a club record and Hawthorn has continued to win regularly since then with the only defeats in 2017, 2020, 2022 and in Gather Round this season, with margins of 18, 32, four and five points respectively.

Currently, Hawthorn has won 70 and Collingwood 100 from 170 meetings, the deficit of 30 being a massive improvement from when it was 56 in 1974 (15-71).

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Last Saturday saw Hawthorn overturn a three quarter-time deficit to win a game for the first time since Round 11 last season, when the Hawks came from 14 points down to defeat St Kilda at Docklands.

The margin of nine points at the final change against Fremantle was the third biggest three-quarter time deficit that the Hawks have overturned at University of Tasmania Stadium behind 14 points against North Melbourne in 2009 and 13 points versus Adelaide in 2021.

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Blake Hardwick’s current sequence of 67 consecutive games sees him joining the top 20 Hawthorn consecutive games sequences. Hardwick’s run of consecutive games since he last missed a match in Round 18 2021 has him in equal 20^th place and when he plays against Collingwood on Saturday he will claim outright 20^th spot.

What makes Hardwick’s performance even more impressive is that he had already had sequences of 65 (2017-19) and 31 (2020-21) consecutive games, making him one of just six Hawks to have three or more sequences of 30-plus consecutive games. However, Hardwick will still have a way to go to catch Andy Collins who holds the Hawthorn record for consecutive games, playing 189 in a row from 1988 to 1996.

Hawthorn currently has a strong collection of live consecutive games sequences with Hardwick (67) followed by Dylan Moore (62), Conor Nash (54), James Worpel (40), Josh Weddle (33) and Connor Macdonald (31), plus five others who have played every game in 2024.

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Calsher Dear’s two second quarter goals against Fremantle took him to 11 career goals, the first Hawk wearing number 35 to reach double figures since Adrian Cox, who booted 27 goals in his 54 games in number 35. In the 19 seasons between the end of Cox’s career in 2004 and Dear’s debut this season, eight individuals wore number 35, but the most any of them kicked when wearing 35 was six by Jarryd Roughead in his one season (2005) in number 35 before moving to number 2. 

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Hawthorn has played 60 games in Round 19, recording 33 wins and 27 losses (with a bye in 1991). Hawthorn won five consecutive Round 19 games from 2014 to 2018, and defeated North Melbourne in Hobart in this round in 2022.

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20 years ago, in Round 19 2004, Hawthorn broke a run of 10 consecutive losses with a win against the Bulldogs at Docklands – 19.6.120 to 16.13.109. It was the second game in charge for interim coach Donald McDonald who had taken over from Peter Schwab. Hawthorn had 12 individual goalkickers headed by Simon Beaumont and Mark Williams, with three each. In a sign that the Hawks’ future was not as bleak as much of the 2004 season had indicated, two youngsters, Luke Hodge and Sam Mitchell, received Brownlow votes.

50 years ago, in Round 19 1974, Hawthorn scored a comfortable 25-point win against Melbourne at Princes Park – 17.20.122 to 14.13.97. Michael Moncrieff kicked four goals, while good players included John Hendrie, Brian Douge, Michael Tuck, Leigh Matthews, Peter Knights and Alan Goad.

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

Dunstall also 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.