At the half way mark of the home-and-away season there are significant similarities between Hawthorn this year and 1990, the only other season following back-to-back flags.
In both seasons, Hawthorn had a 7-4 record after 11 games, and remarkably the results came in the same sequence of wins and losses in all but two rounds.
The ladder positions were also similar being fourth of 14 in 1990 and fifth of 18 now.
However, there is a very big difference in percentage, 120.8 then compared to 152.9 this season, surely a cause for optimism that the contemporary Hawks might end up finishing higher than the fifth place their counterparts achieved a quarter of a century ago.
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The Hawks are yet to win a flag when 7-4 at the half-way mark of a 22-game home-and-away season.
Since the 22-game season began in 1970, the Hawks have had a 7-4 record on seven previous occasions, with the best finish being runners up in 2012.
It is not as though a 7-4 record should prevent premiership success, as Hawthorn has twice (1983 and 1991) won the flag having had 6-5 records after 11 games.
Other premierships have followed 10-1 and 9-2 records at the half-way mark four times each, and an 8-3 record on one occasion.
In the days of 18-game home-and-away seasons, Hawthorn had a 5-4 record at the half-way mark of the 1961 season, which improved to 7-4 after 11 games as the club headed towards its historic first premiership.
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In the wake of Melbourne’s defeat of Geelong in Corey Enright’s 300th game, it was mentioned in the media that this continued a trend of Melbourne beating every opponent which had a player celebrating a 300-game milestone.
One of the examples given was that the Demons had beaten Hawthorn in Leigh Matthews’ 300th game.
This is true, but there is a significant caveat.
Nobody at the time treated it as Matthews’ 300th when, in Round 13 1984, Melbourne beat Hawthorn for the first time since 1973.
Everyone at the ground remembered Hawthorn celebrating the champion’s 300th game with a comfortable win against Footscray at the Western Oval eight weeks earlier.
At the time, state games played on the same day as club games were included in games tallies. When they were subsequently deleted Matthews lost eight games.
Kelvin Moore was another whose 300th game changed with hindsight, but in his case the Hawks won both encounters.
Other Hawthorn 300-gamers to enjoy wins in their milestones were Don Scott, Michael Tuck and Shane Crawford, whereas Chris Langford endured a defeat.
Two other players reached their AFL 300-game milestones (including games at other clubs) while wearing brown and gold, with Russell Greene doing so in a win and Paul Salmon in a loss.
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Luke Breust’s three goals against Adelaide took his career goals tally to 198, and just two goals away from becoming the 26th Hawthorn player to reach the 200 goal milestone.
In addition, a third goal will take him to 201 and level with two of the club’s all-time greats, Graham Arthur and Peter Knights.
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This round marks the tenth anniversary of the last time Hawthorn lost a game by 100 points or more.
Back in Alastair Clarkson’s first season as coach, Round 13 2005 saw the Hawks lose by 117 points to reigning premiers Port Adelaide.
The Hawthorn team that night included no fewer than 12 future premiership players for the club, while the victorious Port team also contained two future Hawks premiership stars, Stuart Dew and Shaun Burgoyne.
Ten years earlier, Hawthorn almost won by a hundred, defeating Fitzroy by 99 points at Princes Park in Round 13 1995.
If the Hawks had kicked straighter they would have, but a final score of 21.25.151 precluded it.
Simon Minton-Connell kicked eight goals and Paul Hudson five, while one of their Fitzroy opponents was future Hawk and current acting Carlton coach, John Barker.
In that game, the Hawks half-time score was 7.13. In an odd quirk, that was also the half-time score exactly ten years earlier in Round 13 1985.
However, whereas in 1995 the accuracy improved after half-time, in 1985 it deteriorated further, producing 0.10 in the third term and a final score of 11.31.97.
Luckily, it was still good enough to beat Melbourne’s 12.9.81 by 16 points.
The main culprit was Michael Byrne who kicked 0.8. Richard Loveridge got the 3 Brownlow votes for his 29 disposals and 2 goals.
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The loss to Essendon in Round 2 this season ended a run of five consecutive Hawthorn wins against the Bombers, which only just failed to equal the club record of six consecutive wins against them, set in 1987-89 and equalled in 2005-08.
Overall, the two clubs have played each other 157 times, with the Hawks winning 61 and losing 96.
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Hawthorn has played 89 matches in Round 13 for 40 wins, 48 defeats and one draw.
The Hawks have won their past four Round 13 games, beating Essendon by 16 points at the MCG in 2010, Gold Coast (2011) and after a bye in 2012, West Coast (2013) and Carlton last season.
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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.
The Round 13 record for Hawthorn is nine, held jointly by Peter Hudson (1971) and Dunstall (1988) followed by bags of eight from Peter Knights (1972), Mike Moncrieff (1980) and Simon Minton-Connell (1995).
