If Hawthorn can beat Collingwood on Saturday night it will add the Magpies to the list of clubs against which the Hawks have had a winning sequence of ten games or more. 

The first opponent Hawthorn recorded ten consecutive victories against was Richmond from 1959 to 1964. Since then, the Hawks have notched up a further ten instances of ten or more in a row against Melbourne (twice), South Melbourne/Sydney (twice), Carlton, Fitzroy, Geelong, North Melbourne, Richmond (again) and St Kilda. The longest of these was 22 against Melbourne from 1973 to 1984, followed by 20 versus St Kilda from 1979 to 1989. 

The Hawks previous record of six consecutive wins against Collingwood was recorded on three separate occasions (1982-84, 1985-88 and 1989-92). In fact, in the period between 1982 and 1992, Hawthorn won 18 of a possible 20 against Collingwood, with the only losses coming by 11 points in 1985 and 10 points in 1989. 

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Given these recent successes, it is worth remembering that it took 36 years for Hawthorn to even string together two consecutive victories against the Magpies. After winning for the first ever time at Victoria Park in Round 13 1960, Hawthorn backed up that result with two wins in the Premiership year of 1961 to create a new record of three consecutive wins.

The nine consecutive wins against the Magpies since the 2011 Preliminary Final loss, has reduced the deficit in the head-to-head between the clubs to 31 (65-96), a vast improvement on the situation when Hawthorn trailed 3 to 57 before the Victoria Park win in 1960. At that time, Hawthorn had yet to win a Premiership and Collingwood had 13; now it is Hawthorn with 13 Premierships and Collingwood just two ahead on 15.

Read: Hawthorn's injury report leading into Round 9

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Ricky Henderson produced a somewhat quirky stat with his three goals last Saturday against Brisbane Lions. In his previous four games, Henderson had not kicked a goal and thus he opened his Hawthorn account in his fifth game with a bag of three. As it happens, opening your account with a three goal haul further than four games into a Hawthorn career is exceedingly rare.

A reasonable number of players have kicked three or more goals on debut (most recently Luke Lowden in 2014), or in their second game, but the previous instance of beginning with three goals when five or more games into a Hawthorn career was 47 years ago. In Round 5 1970, Geoff Smith was playing his tenth game, when he kicked three goals in a three point loss to Footscray, a game best-remembered as Ted Whitten’s last game. It was Smith’s first game for that season having played his previous nine in 1969. He became something of a goal-kicker for the rest of 1970, finishing with 21 goals from 18 games.

Prior to Smith, there had only been a handful of similar examples, but the prize for this quirky stat must surely belong to Albert ‘Butch’ Prior who did not kick a goal in his first 14 games, then kicked four in his 15^th game. Moreover, Prior proceeded to produce a career record of 258 goals in 103 games, a goals tally that still has him in 18^th place on the all-time club list.

Read: How did the listed Hawks fare in VFL this week?

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Hawthorn has played 91 matches in Round 9 for 42 wins and 49 defeats. The Hawks won five consecutive Round 9 matches from 2007 to 2011, but then suffered a shock 62 point loss to Richmond in Round 9 2012, before bouncing back with wins against Gold Coast in both 2013 and 2015 (separated by a bye in 2014), but then suffered another loss to Sydney at the MCG in Round 9 last season..

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10 years ago, in Round 9 2007, a major third quarter burst put Hawthorn on track to beat reigning Premiers West Coast. A crowd of 18,112 in Launceston saw scores level at half-time before the Hawks produced a 7.1 to 1.3 term to open up a 34 point lead. Hawthorn ran out winners by 35 points – 15.9.99 to 8.16.64. Tim Boyle and Luke Hodge both kicked three goals.

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30 years ago, in Round 9 1987, Hawthorn supporters had an afternoon to savour as their team thrashed Essendon by 114 points – 25.15.165 to 7.9.51. Surprisingly, Jason Dunstall only contributed one of the 25 goals, but several other forwards had big days with Dermott Brereton booting six goals, and both Peter Curran and Russell Morris contributing four. Three Hawks had over 30 disposals headed by Peter Schwab (33) and closely followed by Michael Tuck (31) and John Kennedy Jnr. (30).

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Hawthorn and Collingwood have not met in Round 9 since 1982 when Hawthorn comfortably beat the struggling Magpies at Victoria Park by 22 points. Five years earlier, it was a very different Collingwood team which the Hawks met in a top-of-the-ladder clash. 

40 years ago, in Round 9 1977, a crowd of 35,042 packed Princes Park (a record for a Hawthorn home game there) and saw the Magpies dominate the first three quarters, before Hawthorn rallied in the final term to go down by 34 points – 22.10.142 to 16.12.108. The two subsequent meetings between Hawthorn and Collingwood in 1977 were thrillers as the Hawks won at Victoria Park in Round 20 by six points, but then lost the Second Semi Final by two points. 

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Jason Dunstall holds the Hawthorn record for most goals in a game versus Collingwood, having booted 11 in both 1989 and 1990. Next best was Michael Moncrieff’s 10 in 1976. Peter Hudson holds the Round 9 record, booting 10, in a 30 point victory over Fitzroy at Glenferrie, in this round in 1968.

Read: Footy flashbacks Round 8