Reflecting on all the topical milestones and achievements, past and present, as we head into Week 1 of the 2018 finals series. This is 'Footy Flashbacks'....

Hawthorn enters its 35^th Final Series with its equal third best winning sequence going into the September action. The Hawks currently have a six-game winning sequence which has only been bettered in 1961 (10 consecutive wins) and 2011 (eight wins), plus being equalled in 1988.

Read: Never have I ever played an AFL final

This Thursday night, Shaun Burgoyne will become the 32^nd Hawthorn 200-gamer and the sixth Hawk to reach the milestone in a Final.

Four of the previous five who reached 200 games in the Finals also did so in Qualifying Finals – Alan Martello (1978), Geoff Ablett (1982), John Platten (1994) and Brad Sewell (2014). The other Hawk to play his 200^th in a Final was Don Scott who celebrated the milestone in memorable fashion, as premiership captain on Grand Final day 1976. 

This Thursday night Richmond will become the 15^th different opponent Hawthorn has played in a Final. In the first meetings against the previous 14 opponents, the Hawks have won nine and lost five. 

What makes the fact that Hawthorn and Richmond have not previously met in a Final more remarkable is that the two clubs participated in the same Finals Series on no fewer than nine occasions between 1971 and 2015. The closest the two clubs previously came to playing in a Final was in 1974 when Hawthorn lost the Preliminary Final to North Melbourne by just five points, being just one straight kick away from meeting the Tigers in the Grand Final. 

Remarkably, 2018 is just the second occasion when Hawthorn has finished fourth at the end of the home and away season. The one previous occasion was 1993, when under the second version of the Final Six, Hawthorn got to play a home Elimination Final against fifth-placed Adelaide which was making its first ever Finals appearance. The Hawks lost by 15 points to slip to a final position of sixth. 

The only season when Hawthorn has finished fourth after the Finals was 2001, when a pair of Finals wins against Sydney and Port Adelaide lifted the Hawks from sixth after the regular season to a narrow Preliminary Final defeat.

This Thursday night’s crowd is projected to be one of the biggest ever for a Hawthorn Final, excluding Grand Finals. The record for a non-GF Hawthorn Final is 99,822 for the 1971 Second Semi Final against St Kilda. While that record is unlikely to be broken there is a possibility that the current second-placed crowd of 91,471 at the 1963 Second Semi versus Geelong will be exceeded.

Hawthorn will be trying to avoid losing three consecutive Finals for just the second time in its history. Hawthorn lost four consecutive Finals between 1992 and 1996, but, apart from that run of defeats, there have only been four sequences of two losses in a row, those being in 1977, 1985-86, 2010-11 and 2016.

In contrast, the Hawks have had 13 sequences of two or more Finals’ wins, headed by six in a row in 2013-14, followed by five consecutive victories in 1983-84, four in both 1976-77 and 1988-89, plus five further sequences of three successive victories.

Hawthorn has a good record in Qualifying Finals, having won 12 and lost seven. The record looks even better if one excludes the different types of Qualifying Finals under the original McIntyre Eight (1994-99) which carried the risk of elimination – Hawthorn played two of them and lost both. Overall, the Hawks’ Finals record is 53 wins and 31 defeats from 84 games. 

10 years ago, in the 2008 Qualifying Final, Hawthorn thrashed the Western Bulldogs by 51 points – 18.19.127 to 11.10.76. Lance Franklin kicked eight goals, ably supported by Michael Osborne with four and Jarryd Roughead with three. Brad Sewell (31 disposals) and Sam Mitchell (30) led a dominant midfield.

40 years ago, Hawthorn went into the 1978 Qualifying Final as underdogs, despite finishing above Collingwood on the ladder, but confounded the critics with a 56-point win – 23.16.154 to 14.14.98. Michael Moncrieff kicked eight goals, while young second rover, Peter Russo, in just his ninth game, had 21 kicks and booted four goals. Leigh Matthews, Don Scott, Peter Knights and Michael Tuck headed a long list of other good players. 

This will be Hawthorn’s first game played on a Thursday in Melbourne since Anzac Day 1963, when Hawthorn lost to Melbourne by four points at the MCG. That day was notable for being the first occasion when a Hawthorn home and away game attracted a crowd of over 50,000. In recent seasons, Hawthorn has played five Thursday night games, all interstate, and has a commendable record of four wins and just one defeat. 

Hawthorn has played two previous Finals on 6 September, losing to West Coast at Subiaco in 1992 and beating Sydney at the MCG in 2013.

Hawthorn has played Richmond 157 times, for 70 wins and 87 losses, the deficit being wholly accounted for by Hawthorn losing the first 21 games between the two clubs from 1925 to 1936. The Hawks’ best sequences of wins against Richmond were 16 (1985-94) and 10 (1959-64).

The most goals by a Hawthorn player in the first week of the Finals is the eight by Michael Moncrieff in the 1978 Qualifying Final versus Collingwood, equalled by Lance Franklin’s eight against the Western Bulldogs in 2008 (as above).

Jason Dunstall had an amazing season against Richmond in 1992, booting a club record 17 goals in Round 7 and following it up with a further bag of 12 in Round 22. In his whole career, Dunstall kicked 111 goals against Richmond, behind only his 116 against the Bulldogs.