One of Hawthorn’s greatest players made his debut this week 30 years ago this week.
It was on Easter Monday (8 April 1985) that 20-year-old Queenslander Jason Dunstall first took the field in the Hawthorn seniors against Melbourne at Princes Park. He kicked 3.3 in a promising debut as the Hawks cruised to a 68-point win.
While his debut season produced a modest return of 36 goals in 16 games, from 1986 onwards Dunstall became an absolute star. He went onto play 269 games, kick 1254 goals, win three Coleman Medals and four premierships.
In an interesting historical footnote, the game in which Dunstall debuted – Round 2 – was actually the Hawks’ third game for the season, as the Round 3 clash with Essendon had been brought forward and played the week prior to Round 1. As the Hawks had lost both opening games, the win against Melbourne was very much needed.
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Hawthorn will be hoping to equal a club record of six consecutive wins against Essendon at the MCG on Sunday. Hawthorn has twice previously recorded winning sequences of six, in 1987-89 and 2005-08.
The current sequence of five wins against the Bombers began with home wins at the MCG in 2010 and 2011, and has continued with away wins at Etihad Stadium in the past three seasons. The last defeat against Essendon was in the most recent away game at the MCG, early in the 2010 season.
Overall, the two clubs have played each other 156 times, with the Hawks winning 61 and losing 95.
Also this Sunday, Hawthorn will attempt to win consecutive games to start a season for just the fourth time in the last 20 years. 2001, 2008 and 2014 are the only recent seasons in which the Hawks have started with two wins.
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In a strange quirk in the fixture, Hawthorn is facing the same two opponents, Geelong and Essendon, in the opening rounds this season as it did in 1990, after the only previous back-to-back Premierships in the club’s history.
While all Hawks fans would be happy that the Round 1 results were similar (115 and 62 point wins against Geelong), we can only hope that the Round 2 result will be very different. In 1990, Hawthorn lost its Round 2 game against Essendon at the MCG by 62 points, despite four goals from Dermott Brereton and a 26 disposal game from John Kennedy Jr.
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The three changes form 2014 premiership to Round 1, 2015 was the fewest Hawthorn has made since 1986-87 when there were just two. In Round 1, 1987 Hawthorn took the field for a rematch against Grand Final opponent Carlton with only Gary Buckenara and Terry Wallace absent from the flag-winning team, replaced by Ray Jencke and Tony Symonds. The most changes between premiership success and Round 1 in Hawthorn is seven, recorded after the previous two Clarkson-era premierships.
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In winning against Geelong on Monday, Hawthorn ended the sequence of alternating Round 1 results which had stretched back more than a decade. It also meant Hawthorn had won consecutive Round 1 games for the first time in almost 20 years. The most recent instance was the six consecutive Round 1 wins from 1992-97.
Also worth noting is that Hawthorn’s winning margin of 62 points against Geelong was exactly double the Cats largest winning margin against the Hawks in their sequence of 11 consecutive wins from 2009 to 2013.
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Overall, Round 2 is one of the club’s poorest with 37 wins, one draw and 52 losses, but there has been some improvement in recent seasons, with five wins out of the last eight, including 2013’s 50 point triumph over West Coast in Perth and last season’s four-point win against Essendon at Etihad Stadium.
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The best individual goalkicking performance by a Hawthorn player against Essendon is 12 by Jason Dunstall in 1992, followed by 11 by Leigh Matthews in 1973 and 10 by Michael Moncrieff in 1972. Dunstall also holds the club’s Round 2 record, kicking nine twice – in 1988 versus Richmond and in 1991 versus Sydney.
