As many as eight players who represented the Hawks in the club’s most recent final in 2018 could be lining up against the Western Bulldogs on Friday night.

The Hawthorn team which lost the Semi Final to Melbourne in 2018 included Luke Breust, Jack Gunston, Blake Hardwick, Jarman Impey, Harry Morrison, Conor Nash, James Sicily and James Worpel.

Further, one of the Melbourne opposition, Sam Frost, will be playing for Hawthorn this time around, while Taylor Duryea has shifted from Hawthorn to the opposition.

Hawthorn has won four of the five previous finals which it has played against the Western Bulldogs.

The victories were in the 1961 Grand Final; both the Qualifying and Preliminary Finals in 1985; and the 2008 Qualifying Final. The sole defeat came in the 2016 Semi Final.

Overall, the Hawks hold an 86-81 advantage in the head-to-head rivalry between the clubs in the VFL-AFL since joining the competition together in 1925, with two draws (in 1996 and 1999), a remarkably close statistic given the 13-2 Premiership differential between the clubs.

Hawthorn won eight consecutive games against the Bulldogs from 2010 to 2016, the winning sequence started and ended with thrilling three-point victories. In recent seasons results have been mixed, but the Hawks have won the two most recent encounters, by three points in Launceston in Round 22 last season and by seven points at Docklands in Round 8 this season. 

Hawthorn has an unblemished record when playing in finals after a gap of five or more seasons, the scenario facing the club on Friday night. The Hawks won the 1957 First Semi Final after a 32-season period with no Finals; the 1971 Second Semi Final after seven seasons out of the finals; and the 2007 Elimination Final after five seasons without finals.

This Friday night also provides the opportunity to end Hawthorn’s equal second-longest period without winning a final. With the Hawks’ most recent finals win being the 2015 Grand Final against West Coast, it means the current stretch (2016-23) is equal to 1992 to 1999, which also followed a Grand Final victory over West Coast. 

Hawthorn will also be hoping to avoid the most consecutive finals defeats in club history, with the current sequence of four (2016-18) equal with the four consecutive defeats from 1992 to 1996.

Hawthorn great Shane Crawford will turn 50 next Monday, 9 September. In a stellar career, Crawford won a Brownlow medal, four club best and fairest awards, and memorably capped off his career playing in a Premiership in his 305^th and last game.

Hawthorn has finished in seventh position on the ladder at the end of the home and away season for just the sixth time in the club’s history. The previous occasions were 1956, 1959, 1973, 1979 and 2010. In one other season, 1994, Hawthorn slipped to seventh from sixth after losing its only final in extra time.

Chad Wingard has announced his retirement after 71 games and 68 goals in his Hawthorn career which began in Round 3 2019. He had some stellar periods for Hawthorn, including the opening rounds of 2020 when he twice got the 10 Coaches’ votes and the three Brownlow votes; and the last month of the 2021 season when, across four games, he received an outstanding eight Brownlow votes and 36 Coaches’ votes.

Jai Newcombe has become the first Hawthorn player to have consecutive top 15 finishes in the Coaches Award since Tom Mitchell in 2017-18. Newcombe finished equal 15^th last season with 63 votes and bettered that this season by finishing equal 14^th with 69 votes.

Last weekend marked the 100^th anniversary of Hawthorn’s final game in the VFA. On Saturday, 30 August 1924 Hawthorn defeated Brunswick at Glenferrie by one point – 7.16.58 to 7.15.57 to finish the season in sixth position, just one game outside the top four, but one spot ahead of fellow 1925 League entrant North Melbourne (the other 1925 entrant Footscray was on top of the ladder). Twelve of the 18 players in Round 18 1924 subsequently represented Hawthorn in the VFL-AFL.

Hawthorn’s 124-point victory against North Melbourne in Round 24 was the club’s biggest winning margin since defeating Carlton by 138 points in 2015. The score of 26.14.170 was the highest since kicking 27.11.173 in the same Carlton game in 2015.

It was the 29^th time Hawthorn has won a game by 100 points or more, compared to 19 losses by 100 or more. It is striking that after 46 seasons in the League, Hawthorn was 0-13 on this metric, but, in the last 54 years, the club has an incredible 29-6 record. The Hawks last lost by more than 100 points in 2005, with 12 victories by 100 points or more coming since then.

The 10.4 last quarter against North was the first time Hawthorn has kicked 10 goals in a final term for 12 years, the previous instance also being in Launceston, 11.3 against Port Adelaide in 2012.

10 years ago, in the first week of the 2014 Finals, Hawthorn defeated Geelong in a Qualifying Final by 36 points – 15.14.104 to 10.8.68 – after scores were level at half-time. Jack Gunston and Jordan Lewis both kicked three goals and Sam Mitchell was BOG with 36 disposals.

40 years ago, in the first week of the 1984 Finals, Hawthorn accounted for Carlton in a Waverley Qualifying Final by 30 points – 18.14.122 to 13.14.92. Leigh Matthews kicked six goals, with Michael Byrne, Robert Dipierdomenico and Russell Greene also prominent in the best players.

The most goals by a Hawthorn player in the first week of the finals is the eight by Michael Moncrieff in the 1978 Qualifying Final versus Collingwood, equalled by Lance Franklin’s eight against the Western Bulldogs in 2008. Jason Dunstall holds the Hawthorn individual goal-kicking record against the Bulldogs with 14 goals at Waverley in 1996.