The greatest player of all-time, Leigh Matthews made his debut 50 years ago this round.
Matthews debuted in Round 16 1969 against Melbourne at the MCG and a crowd of 32,547 saw Matthews boot a goal with his first kick in League football.
In those pre-interchange days, Matthews had spent three and a half quarters sitting on the bench beside fellow 17-year old Peter Knights, who had made his debut seven rounds earlier. Remarkably, Matthews and Knights also spent time on the bench together 16 years later, in the 1985 Preliminary Final.
When Matthews came on to replace Brian Douge in the last quarter, the Hawks were kicking to the Punt Road end. The Sporting Globe described the passage of play which led to his goal as follows: “The Hawks swarmed forward for [Ray] Wilson to kick the ball high towards [Peter] Hudson, who nearly marked but couldn’t hold it and Matthews grabbed the ball as it hit the ground and snapped a goal”.
Largely due to accurate kicking for goal (Hudson kicked 9.0), the Hawks had the game safely in their keeping when Matthews appeared, going onto win 21.5.131 to 13.17.95.
Matthews showed enough in his Round 16 cameo to be included in the starting XVIII the following week against North Melbourne. In that game he kicked three goals, as he began the journey towards his ultimate 332 game, 915 goal, four-Premiership career in brown and gold.
This Friday night, Luke Breust will become the second fastest player in VFL-AFL history to reach 200 games. He will do so just eight years and 51 days after his debut, which puts him behind only North’s Wayne Schimmelbusch who reached the milestone in eight years, 11 days. Since his debut in Round 8 2011 Breust has only missed four games, one in 2012, another in 2015 and two in 2016.
When Breust made his debut against St Kilda at the MCG, he was the substitute but got an opportunity earlier than anticipated when Stephen Gilham got a game-ending injury. Breust made the most of his chance kicking two goals, one in the third quarter and one in the last. If Breust kicks two goals this Friday night, he will join Alec Albiston in equal ninth place on 383 goals on the Hawthorn career goals list.
In a strange coincidence, this is the fourth consecutive decade in which Hawthorn has been fixtured to play Collingwood in Round 16 in years ending in 9. The previous encounters saw Hawks’ victories in 1989 and 2009, but a defeat in 1999.
10 years ago, in Round 16 2009, Hawthorn produced its best performance of the season to defeat Collingwood by 45 points on a Saturday night at the MCG. The 10th placed Hawks were not given much chance against the 4th placed Magpies and the game seemed to be going to form when Hawthorn trailed by 11 points at half-time.
However, after the long interval, the Hawks rediscovered their best form piling on 7.3 to 0.2 in a brilliant third term and then cruising home to win 18.13.121 to 11.10.76. Luke Hodge was outstanding with 34 disposals and three goals, while other excellent players included Sam Mitchell, Lance Franklin, Brent Guerra, Xavier Ellis and Chance Bateman,
30 years ago, in Round 16 1989, Hawthorn defeated Collingwood by 60 points at Princes Park – 21.11.137 to 11.11.77. The Hawks only had five goalkickers, headed by Jason Dunstall with 11 and Peter Curran with five. Both Dunstall and Curran got Brownlow votes, but the Hawk who most impressed the umpires was ruckman Greg Dear, who got the three votes.
Hawthorn has won 11 of its last 12 games against Collingwood, the only blemish being an 18-point loss in Round 9 2017. The sequence of nine consecutive victories against the Magpies from 2012 to 2016 was a club record. The Hawks began a new winning sequence with a 24-point victory in Round 15 2017 and followed up with a 34-point win in Round 1 last season. That win took the overall record between the clubs to 97-67 in Collingwood’s favour.
Oliver Hanrahan last Saturday became Hawthorn’s first Round 15 debutant since Mitch Thorp in 2007. This was the single longest current streak for a round not having a Hawthorn debutant, the only longer one being Round 22 which last had a debutant in 2005 when Tom Murphy played his first game.
Having not had a game without a multiple goalkicker since 2007, Hawthorn has now had two in consecutive weeks against Sydney and West Coast. This is the first time the Hawks have not had multiple goalkicker in two consecutive games since 1953.
When the Hawks beat the Western Bulldogs by 63 points in Round 16 last season, it became the first round in which there have been 50 Hawthorn wins (with 43 losses and a draw). Earlier this season Round 3 became the second round to bring up the half-century of brown and gold victories.
Hawthorn won nine consecutive Round 16 matches from 1956 to 1964, a further eight from 1968 to 1975, and six from 1989 to 1994. There have been Round 16 victories for the Hawks in eight of the last ten seasons, and a draw in 2017.
Jason Dunstall holds the Hawthorn record for most goals in a game versus Collingwood, having booted 11 in both 1989 and 1990. Next best was Michael Moncrieff’s 10 in 1976.
Peter Hudson, Jason Dunstall and Dermott Brereton share the Round 16 Hawthorn individual goal-kicking record with 11 goals. Hudson kicked 11 in 1970, equalled by Dunstall in 1989 and Brereton in 1990.
