Footy Flashbacks: Semi Final

SAM Mitchell will join some of the club’s greats from the 1970s and 1980s when he becomes the first player from the Clarkson era to play 20 Finals for Hawthorn on Friday night.

There were a total of 13 Hawks from the halcyon decades to reach the 20-final milestone, headed by the incomparable Michael Tuck who played a league record 39 finals.

Mitchell will join four others who finished their careers on 20 finals – Russell Greene, John Kennedy Jnr., Peter Knights and Peter Schwab.

Three other current Hawks – Luke Hodge, Jordan Lewis and Grant Birchall – have missed one final each in the Clarkson era, and will thus have the chance to reach the 20-final milestone in the preliminary final, if the team wins this week.

Meanwhile, Shaun Burgoyne will move into equal third place on the all-time VFL-AFL Finals appearance list.

This will be Burgoyne’s 29^th Final (14 were at Port Adelaide) which will take him level with another Hawk Leigh Matthews, plus Carlton’s Bruce Doull and North Melbourne’s Wayne Schimmelbusch. Apart from Tuck, the only other player then ahead of Burgoyne will be Collingwood’s Gordon Coventry on 31.

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Hawthorn fans retaining dreams of a three-peat might be interested to know that three of the previous five teams to win three flags in a row lost the first final in the year they won a third consecutive flag.

Collingwood (1929), Melbourne (1957) and Brisbane Lions (2003) all did this.

The other two teams who claimed three successive premierships – Carlton (1908) and Melbourne (1941) - won all their finals in the third year.

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This Friday night, Hawthorn will be endeavouring to keep intact a proud record of never having gone out of a finals series in ‘straight sets’.

The only time Hawthorn has lost consecutive finals in the same season was 1977, but in that case it was after winning the qualifying final.

While the Hawks have been eliminated after losing a single game on six occasions, on the five occasions when Hawthorn got a second chance after a first-up loss, they have won every time.

Three of these five were, like this season, after qualifying final defeats. In 1974, 1982 and 2011, Hawthorn bounced back with big wins in the semi finals.

In 1974’s first semi final, Hawthorn thrashed Collingwood by 50 points – 21.12 (138) to 13.10 (88) - having set up the win by outscoring the Magpies by 33 points in the opening term.

Leigh Matthews was the star, having 21 kicks and kicking seven goals, while Michael Moncrieff kicked four and Charlie Grummisch three. Other good players were Brian Douge, Kelvin Matthews, Michael Tuck, Peter Knights and Alan Goad.

In 1982, Hawthorn thrashed North Melbourne by 52 points – 24.22 (166) to 18.6 (114) - after trailing by six points at half-time. Dermott Brereton made a memorable debut with five goals, but the best player was the same as eight years earlier.

Leigh Matthews had an incredible 37 disposals (29 kicks and eight handballs) and kicked four goals. Others with high disposal counts were Peter Russo with 33 and first year player, Richard Loveridge, with 29.

In 2011, Hawthorn beat Sydney by 36 points – 19.8 (122) to 13.8 (86).

Hawthorn had led by 40 points at half-time, but Sydney came back strongly in the third term to reduce the margin to just three goals at the final change, before the Hawks steadied in the final term.

Lance Franklin was a surprise participant after getting injured the previous week and his four goals were supplemented by three from first-year player Paul Puopolo and two each from David Hale and veteran Chance Bateman.

Sam Mitchell (29), Luke Hodge (27) and Jordan Lewis (24) had the most disposals.

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Hawthorn has played three previous finals against Adelaide, losing an elimination final at the MCG in 1993, but then winning an elimination final at Docklands in 2007 and a preliminary final at the MCG in 2012.

These games have all been close, with margins of 15, three and five points respectively.

Hawthorn has won the past five games between the two clubs, which has squared the overall ledger at 18 wins apiece.

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The Hawthorn team against West Coast last Friday night contained 21 members of the 2014 premiership team.

It was the first time in club history that so many members of a premiership team of a previous season have reunited in a game the following season.

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Last week’s match continued a remarkable sequence of Hawthorn kicking scores in the 60s in losing finals.

This was the sixth time in the Hawks’ last seven losing finals that the team has kicked a score in the 60s, the only exception being the 11.15 (81) recorded in the 2012 Grand Final.

Hawthorn’s score of 64 was exactly the same as on its last trip to Perth for a final, the only difference being that the score was 9.10 as opposed to 8.16 in the 2010 elimination final against Fremantle.

In total, 13 of the Hawks 29 finals defeats have seen them kick scores in the 60s.

The other 16 losing scores are made up of one in the 40s, one in the 50s, two in the 70s, six in the 80s, three in the 90s, two in the 100s and one in the 110s. In contrast, in 32 of the Hawks' 50 finals wins they have kicked scores of over 100.

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Three Hawthorn players have kicked eight goals in finals – Michael Moncrieff in 1978, Dermott Brereton in 1985 and Lance Franklin in 2008.

Jason Dunstall holds the record against Adelaide, kicking nine goals on three separate occasions against the Crows – in 1993 and 1994 (both at Football Park) and in 1996 (at Waverley).