Footy Flashbacks: Round 21

This Friday night Hawthorn will play its 1900^th VFL-AFL game.

Win or lose, this hundred game block will have the second best winning percentage in Hawthorn history, behind only the hundred games from the 1201^st to the 1300^th.

The Hawks won 81 and lost just 19 of that hundred played between 1985 and 1989, which will leave it still narrowly ahead of what is currently a 78-21 record in the past 99 games.

To date, the club’s record in ‘hundredth’ games is not particularly good, with seven wins and 11 defeats. The highlights were the 1000^th game in 1977, which produced a 107-point win over Geelong at Princes Park, and particularly the 1300^thgame, the 1989 Second Semi Final, which saw a memorable win over Essendon at Waverley.

Like this week’s milestone, the 1800^th game was played at Docklands. Late in the 2011 home and away season, a crowd of 52,052 saw Hawthorn withstand a second half Carlton fightback to win by 12 points.

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The home game at Docklands against Port Adelaide this week is the just the second time Hawthorn has played a home game at the venue since 2006.

Having played a total of eight home games there between 2000 and 2006, Hawthorn’s only other recent home game there was in Round 13 2013, when the Hawks beat West Coast.

Port Adelaide will become the 13^th different opponent Hawthorn has faced at Docklands, leaving only Brisbane Lions, Gold Coast, GWS and Melbourne as teams which the Hawks have not played at the venue.

Hawthorn has an outstanding recent record at Docklands having won 13 of the last 14 games it has played there.

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Last Saturday might against Geelong, Jarryd Roughead equaled club great John Peck on 475 career goals. The two are currently in equal sixth on the career goals list at Hawthorn behind Jason Dunstall, Leigh Matthews, Peter Hudson, Michael Moncrieff and Lance Franklin.

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Hawthorn’s first behind this week will be the club’s 24,000^th in its 91-season VFL-AFL history. Showing pleasing accuracy the Hawks have kicked more goals (24,683) than behinds, compared to Hawthorn’s collective opponents who have registered more behinds (24,689) than goals (24,294).

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Hawthorn and Port Adelaide have met 30 times with the Hawks winning 13 and losing 17.

A previously poor record against the Power has improved significantly in recent seasons with Hawthorn winning six of the past eight matches between the two clubs, including the dramatic win in last season’s Preliminary Final.

Hawthorn has not lost a home game against Port Adelaide since 2009. Since then, the Hawks have won home games against the Power at the MCG in 2010 and 2011 and at Aurora Stadium in 2012, plus of course the home Final last season.

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The crowd of 55,802 against Geelong last Saturday night brought to seven the number of 50,000 plus crowds which have watched Hawthorn play this season. This equals the record previous recorded in both 2012 and 2014.

It is also worth noting that in Hawthorn’s first 80 seasons in the VFL-AFL, the club attracted only 29 attendances over 50,000; in the past ten seasons there have been 52.

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Since it was first contested in 1970, Round 21 has been one of the best rounds for Hawthorn, with 32 wins and only 13 defeats, including victories in 13 consecutive Round 21 matches between 1982 and 1994 and eight consecutive between 2006 and 2013.

That most recent run was broken by a loss to Fremantle in Perth last season.

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In Hawthorn’s first ever Round 21 game in 1970 the Hawks thrashed North Melbourne by 66 points – 21.14.140 to 9.20.74.

Peter Hudson kicked nine goals, while Kevin Heath and Bob Keddie each contributed three. In his 21^st game Leigh Matthews reached 30 disposals for the first time, having 22 kicks and nine handballs.

Twenty-five years ago, in Round 21 1990, Hawthorn recorded a comfortable win against Carlton – 17.14.116 to 12.13.85. Jason Dunstall booted six and Paul Dear four goals, while the leading possession getters were 37 year old Michael Tuck (30) and 29 year old Gary Ayres (29).

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The big guns, Peter Hudson and Jason Dunstall, share Hawthorn’s Round 21 individual goal-kicking record, with Hudson kicking 9 in 1970 (see above) and 1971, and Dunstall the same tally in 1986 and 1989.

Lance Franklin’s eight goals at the MCG in 2011 is the highest tally by a Hawthorn player against Port Adelaide. A number of Hawks have booted six against the Power beginning with Aaron Lord in the first game between the two clubs in 1997, and followed by Trent Croad (2000), Franklin (2008), Cyril Rioli (2011) and Jarryd Roughead in last year’s Preliminary Final.