This Saturday, Fremantle will become the first opponent which Hawthorn has met ten times at University of Tasmania Stadium.
Hawthorn has won all nine of the previous encounters against the Dockers at the venue with the winning margins ranging from nine points (2004) to 115 points (2010).
The first game against Fremantle in Launceston was in Round 3 2002, with Hawthorn winning by 10 points – 13.11.89 to 11.13.79. The Hawks’ captain Shane Crawford got the three Brownlow votes for his 29-disposal game.
Fremantle will not hold the mantle as the only opponent in ten Launceston games for long, with Brisbane Lions joining them in a fortnight. Apart from Fremantle and Brisbane, other regular opponents at University of Tasmania Stadium have been North Melbourne (7), West Coast (7), Port Adelaide (6) and Gold Coast (5). In total, Hawthorn has played 62 games at the ground for 48 wins, one draw and just 13 defeats
Hawthorn could equal its best winning sequence of six consecutive victories against Fremantle, having previously done so from 1998-2001 and 2011-14.
After a loss at Subiaco in late 2014, the Hawks started a new sequence of wins, which reached five with victory in their first trip to Optus Stadium in Perth in Round 19 last season. The highlight of the current sequence was the triumph in the 2015 Preliminary Final at Subiaco.
Overall, Hawthorn holds a commanding 27 to eight advantage from 35 games in the head-to-head tally between the two clubs.
Hawthorn’s four-point win last Friday night continued the club’s excellent recent record in games decided by six points or fewer. In the past four seasons, Hawthorn has played in 20 such games for the strong record of 14 wins, one draw and just five losses. This recent positive run has seen Hawthorn go ahead in the overall record in these games, with 119 wins, 113 losses and 11 draws.
Hawthorn’s score of 9.13.67 against Collingwood was its lowest winning score against the Magpies since the 7.14.58 kicked in the famous first-ever victory at Victoria Park in 1960, won by a John Peck goal after the siren.
Hawthorn has reached six wins in a season without recording consecutive wins for the first time since 1999, although in that season the wins in Rounds 10 and 12 were separated by a draw in Round 11, not a defeat. The last time Hawthorn got to six wins, all separated by losses was way back in 1936.
Oliver Hanrahan has the opportunity to kick more goals than any Hawthorn player wearing number 41. The three goals he has already kicked in the number puts him in third position behind only Darrin Pritchard, who booted five goals in his one year wearing 41 in his debut year of 1987, and Richard Taylor, who kicked four in his one season in the guernsey which was 1992.
Pritchard played 16 games in number 41 (before he moved to number 18) which is the second highest for the number, behind only Taylor Duryea who played 18 games in 41 in 2013, before shifting to number 8.
Hawthorn has played 91 games in Round 17 for 36 wins, one draw and 54 defeats (with a bye in 2011), a deficit of 18 which is the club’s worst for any round. It makes quite a contrast with Round 16 in which Hawthorn moved to 51 wins last Friday night, its most wins for any round.
The Hawks have lost their past two Round 17 games, narrowly to Geelong in 2017 and by a substantial margin to Brisbane Lions last season. Prior to that, Hawthorn won five consecutive Round 17 games from 2012 to 2016.
This week’s round anniversaries take us back to three wins against North Melbourne, in 1989, 1969 and 1949. The only other victory in Round 17 in a year ending in 9 was against Footscray in 1929. The round has unfortunately had some heart-breaking defeats in years ending in 9, by one point against Geelong in 2009 and two points versus Carlton in 1959.
30 years ago, in Round 17 1989, Hawthorn thrashed North Melbourne by 76 points at Waverley – 23.16.154 to 9.24.76. The Hawks were well on top by quarter time and then raced away with a 9.3 to 2.2 second quarter to lead by 71 points at the long interval. There were many stars for the Hawks headed by Dean Anderson (31 disposals and four goals) and John Kennedy (35 disposals and one goal).
50 years ago, in Round 17 1969, Leigh Matthews was selected for his first full Hawthorn game against North Melbourne at Glenferrie, building on his cameo off the bench from the previous week to gather 13 kicks and boot three goals. Hawthorn won the high-scoring game 22.12.144 to 18.18.126. Peter kicked six goals and Bob Keddie five.
70 years ago, in Round 17 1949, a Glenferrie Oval crowd of 9,000 saw Hawthorn score one of the great upset win wins in its history. The Hawks were bottom of the ladder and North on top, but somehow Hawthorn won 13.10.88 to 9.16.70. Captain-coach Alec Albiston and full-forward ‘Butch’ Prior both scored three goals.
Mark Williams holds the record for most goals by a Hawthorn player against the Dockers, kicking eight against them in Round 1 2006 in Launceston.
Peter Hudson has kicked the most goals for Hawthorn in Round 17, a tally of 10 recorded against St Kilda, at Waverley, in 1977.
