This Saturday night, Hawthorn will be hoping to make it 10 wins in a row in the last round of the home and away season. 

Hawthorn’s last loss in the final home and away game was in 2009. The sequence of nine final day wins includes two narrow victories against Collingwood, by three points in 2010 and one point in 2016, and come from behind successes against Sydney in Sydney in both 2013 and last season 

As well as winning in Round 23 in the last eight seasons (including 2011 when it was the penultimate round) Hawthorn also won its two other Round 23 games, in 1991 and 1994, to give it a perfect 10 for the round. Given that the Hawks have also won their only four Round 24 games (1991, 1992, 1994 and 2011) that gives the club a 14-0 record in the two rounds combined. 

With confirmation that last Sunday was Jarryd Roughead’s last game, we can safely say that by kicking six goals he has far exceeded the most goals in a final game of most of the other great Hawks’ goalkickers. 

John Peck and Jason Dunstall both kicked two goals in their final games in 1966 and 1998 respectively, while Peter Hudson, Leigh Matthews, Michael Moncrieff, Lance Franklin and Dermott Brereton were among those to kick a solitary major in their final games in brown and gold. 

However, there is one Hawthorn goalkicker who exceeded Roughead’s haul in his final game. This was Albert ‘Butch’ Prior who kicked eight goals in his final game in Round 17 1950. It was not as happy an occasion as last Sunday because Hawthorn lost to South Melbourne by nine points, the third smallest losing margin in the club’s winless 1950 season. 

Roughead has finished his playing career with 578 goals from his 283 games, which leaves him in sixth position on the Hawthorn career goals tally, just two behind fifth-placed Lance Franklin.

Read: Sunday's fairy-tale enough for Rough

This Saturday night, Isaac Smith will become the 35^th individual to play 200 games for Hawthorn and will join the select group of players to do so in just his ninth season. The first to do this was Alan Martello who made his debut in Round 1 1970 (the first season with 22 home and away games) and reached 200 in the 1978 Qualifying Final. The most recent prior to Smith was Luke Breust earlier this season.

David Hale will this week become the third former Hawthorn player coached by Alastair Clarkson to coach another AFL team. The previous two were John Barker, who was caretaker coach at Carlton in 2015, and Stuart Dew at Gold Coast.

Hale is not the first former Hawthorn player to act as caretaker coach at Fremantle, with Ben Allan having done so in 2001. The only clubs which have not had a Hawthorn player as their coach are Essendon, GWS Giants and Port Adelaide. 

This week the Hawks and Eagles will clash at Optus Stadium for the first time. Last season, Hawthorn made its debut appearance at the venue, thrashing Fremantle by 59 points. 

Hawthorn has played a total of 24 games (21 away and three Finals) against West Coast at the previous Perth venues of Subiaco and the WACA Ground, winning a third of the matches, with seven wins from 21 at Subiaco and one win from three at the WACA Ground. Six of Hawthorn’s seven wins versus the Eagles at Subiaco were in years when the Hawks went onto win the Flag.

Overall, the two clubs have played 51 times, with Hawthorn winning 23 and losing 28.

Hawthorn’s score of 18.10.118 versus the Gold Coast was the club’s first century score since kicking 16.11.107 in the win against Essendon in Round 20. It ended a sequence of 25 games with reaching the ton, the longest since one of 33 in 1965-66. 

The winning margin of 70 points means that Hawthorn has won at least one game by more than 10 goals in the 12 of the 15 seasons under Alastair Clarkson’s coaching, the only exceptions being 2005 (biggest 54 points), 2009 (again 54 points) and 2017 (52 points)

If Hawthorn does not make the Finals, it will be the club’s earliest date on which the club has finished a VFL-AFL season since the Olympic year of 2000, when the Hawks were eliminated in a Semi Final on 18 August. Apart from 2000, it will be the club’s earliest finish since 1964 when the final game (against Richmond at Punt Road) was on 22 August. 

Last Sunday’s crowd at Docklands of 31,331 was the biggest for a Hawthorn versus Gold Coast game beating the previous record of 28,112 at the MCG in 2013.

Jarryd Roughead set a new club record of eight goals against West Coast in Launceston in 2014, passing Jason Dunstall, who had kicked seven against the Eagles in both 1988 and 1989. Dunstall holds the Round 23 record with a tally of six, which included his 1000^th career goal, against Brisbane at the Gabba in 1994.