Forty years ago this week, champion rover Peter Crimmins played his final game for Hawthorn.

In Round 7 1975, club captain Crimmins lined up against Fitzroy at Princes Park in a game which nobody knew at the time would prove to be his final one.

Crimmins had missed the previous season’s Finals series due to illness, but bounced back playing the opening seven rounds of the 1975 season. He was in good form too, getting 20 or more disposals in five of the seven games, and averaging a goal per game.

However, after the Fitzroy game, a re-emergence of his cancer meant that Crimmins was out of action for several months before bravely returning in September, playing several Reserves Finals, but failing to gain selection in the 1975 Grand Final. He died at the tragically young age of 28, just days after Hawthorn’s 1976 Premiership.

In his outstanding career, from Round 1 1966 to Round 7 1975, Crimmins played 176 games and kicked 231 goals and was a member of the 1971 Premiership team.

In the game against Fitzroy, Hawthorn rebounded from its first loss of the season to Carlton the previous week, drawing away in the last quarter to win, 19.16.130 to 13.12.90. A crowd of 10,940 at Princes Park saw the Lions lead by 8 points at quarter time, before the Hawks took the lead by 11 and 13 at the next two changes. Leigh Matthews had an outstanding game with 30 disposals and 4 goals. Another to contribute 4 goals was lanky ruckman/forward Bernie Jones.

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2015 has become just the third season when Hawthorn has had alternating wins and losses in the opening six rounds of the season.

The previous occasions were 1997 and 2003. In 1997 the Hawks, like this season, recorded wins in odd-numbered rounds and losses in even-numbered ones, while in 2003 the reverse happened.

One big difference between these seasons and now was percentage. In 1997, it was 99.0 and in 2003 it was 95.1, whereas now it is 136.4. We should also hope that what happens next is different too. In both 1997 and 2003, the alternating results ended with a series of losses.

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Hawthorn has won its last 11 matches against Melbourne. The second win of the sequence squared the ledger at 74-74 in the head-to-head battle between the clubs, for the first time since it was 0-0 in 1925. The subsequent 9 wins have put Hawthorn in front – 83 to 74, after 157 games.

The Hawks have a long way to go to equal the club’s all-time best sequence against Melbourne which is 22, set between 1973 and 1984, which is the club’s best-ever sequence of success against any opponent.

Hawthorn has currently also won its last 11 games against Carlton, while the next best current sequences are 7 wins against the Western Bulldogs and 6 wins against Collingwood and Gold Coast.

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Hawthorn’s winning sequence against Melbourne began in Round 2 2007. Having lost badly to Brisbane Lions at the Gabba in Round 1, the Hawks went in as $2.40 outsiders against Melbourne at the MCG. Experts tipping Hawthorn could be counted on the fingers of one hand.

Before an Easter Monday crowd of 43,197, the Hawks trailed by 13 points at quarter time, but then took control, leading by 13 at half-time, 29 at three quarter time and winning 17.14.116 to 14.10.94. There were four multiple goal-kickers (Mark Williams 6, Tim Boyle 3, Ben Dixon 2 and Trent Croad 2), while Jordan Lewis (3) and Brad Sewell (2) got Brownlow votes. Others in the best included Ladson, Williams, Mitchell and Campbell.

Incidentally, 16 of the 22 members of that Hawthorn team of underdogs went on to become Premiership players just 18 months later, while the beaten favourites slumped to 14th in 2007 and finished with the wooden spoon in both 2008 and 2009.

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Hawthorn’s Round 7 record is 43 wins, 46 losses and one draw. Hawthorn has won its last four Round 7 games, against Port Adelaide (2011), Melbourne (2012), Sydney (2013) and St Kilda last season. The 1970s brought much Round 7 happiness - the Hawks won eight consecutive Round 7 matches from 1971 to 1978.

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Round 7 produced the best individual goalkicking performance in Hawthorn history and the equal second best in VFL-AFL history – Jason Dunstall’s 17 against Richmond at Waverley in 1992. The leading individual goalkicker for Hawthorn against Melbourne is Peter Hudson who booted 16 goals at Glenferrie in Round 5, 1969.