Shaun Burgoyne will this week break a 38 year old club record when he wears the number 67 in the game against Sydney.

Burgoyne is wearing the special number to recognise the fact that this week’s Indigenous round is timed to coincide with the 50^th anniversary of the 1967 Referendum to amend the Australian Constitution in relation to Indigenous Australians.It will be the highest number that has ever been worn by a Hawthorn player.

The current record highest is number 58 worn by Terry Moore in two games in 1979. Moore came to the Hawks from North Melbourne early in the 1979 season and wore the number 58 in his first two games in Rounds 5 and 6, before he moved to number 33 for the remainder of his 21 game Hawthorn career in 1979-80.

The next highest Hawthorn number is 55, which was worn by Glenn Nugent in four matches in 1990, before he shifted to the number 21 for the remainder of his career. The most games by an individual in a number higher than 50 has been the 33 games played by Shaun Rehn wearing number 52 in 2001-02. 

The 1967 referendum was held on Saturday 27 May, a day on which Hawthorn played Fitzroy at Princes Park in front of just 7,608 fans. Hawthorn won 16.14.110 to 9.12.66, with Peter Hudson kicking seven goals.

Watch: Burgoyne 'honoured' to wear 67

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The last four games between Hawthorn and Sydney have been won by the away team. In 2015, Sydney won by four points at the MCG in Round 8, while Hawthorn won at Stadium Australia by 89 points in Round 16. Last season, while the Swans repeated their MCG success in Round 9 with a 14 point victory, the Hawks again got revenge with a stunning five point victory at the SCG in Round 17.

Last season’s SCG win gave Hawthorn a 13-12 advantage in games against the Swans at the venue, but overall the Hawks have a 14-12 winning record at the ground having also beaten North Melbourne there in 1979. The Hawks and Swans also have an even record at Stadium Australia with two wins each, the Hawthorn victories coming in 2013 and 2015, with Sydney prevailing in 2009 and 2014.

After the Swans moved to Sydney in 1982, the Hawks won the first five encounters between the two clubs at the SCG. Then after a couple of defeats, the Hawks won another four in a row to take the record to 9-2, before the tide turned with Sydney winning 10 of the next 11 between 1996 and 2010, the only exception being 2003. However, the Hawks have stemmed the tide with wins in the last three in 2011, 2012 and 2016. Overall, against the Swans, Hawthorn has won 90 matches, lost 70 and drawn two.

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Tom Mitchell’s 50 disposals last Saturday night smashed the previous Hawthorn record of 44 which had been held jointly by six players – Terry Wallace (1983), Anthony Condon (1991), Jordan Lewis (2014), Luke Hodge (2015), Josh Gibson (2016) and Sam Mitchell (2016).

Lewis’ effort against Fremantle at Subiaco in 2014 was, like Tom Mitchell’s stellar performance, in a losing team. A number of other 40-plus disposal games for Hawthorn have also been in losing sides, including Terry Wallace’s 42 versus Carlton in 1983 and Shane Crawford’s 41 against Adelaide in 1999.

Read: Hawthorn players to have notched up over 40 disposals

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In Round 1 2009, a number of Premiership heroes from the previous September were unavailable so Hawthorn gave an opportunity to three debutants – Matt Suckling, Ryan Schoenmakers and Brendan Whitecross. All three have had many ups and downs in their careers but, with Whitecross now having played 99 games, it looks like all three will reach 100 games.

Suckling reached the milestone in the 2015 Semi Final and finished on 102 games before departing for the Bulldogs. Schoenmakers played his 100^th game in last season’s Qualifying Final and is also currently on 102 games. Both Suckling and Schoenmakers got to play in Hawthorn Premiership, something the incredibly unlucky Whitecross has been denied.

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Hawthorn has a positive Round 10 record with 47 wins and 45 defeats. The Hawks won seven Round 10 games in a row from 1958 to 1964, 11 out of 12 from 1968 to 1979 and six out of seven from 2010 to 2016. The one recent Round 10 defeat was against Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval in 2014. In the decade between 2000 and 2009, Round 10 was Hawthorn’s hoodoo round, with just one win, that coming in 2007 when Hawthorn beat Port Adelaide at Football Park.

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20 years ago, in Round 10 1997, Hawthorn produced a first quarter similar to last Saturday night, kicking 7.6 to Collingwood’s 0.1. The Waverley Park crowd of 51,494 saw the Hawks hold their advantage for the duration of the day to win 16.12.108 to 8.7.55. Nick Holland kicked five goals and vied with Paul Salmon for BOG honours. It was a welcome success after losses in the previous four games.

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Peter Hudson holds the individual goals record for Hawthorn against the Swans, twice kicking 13, in both 1969 and 1970. Lance Franklin holds the Round 10 record as his 13 against North Melbourne in 2012 surpassed the previous round record of 9, held jointly by Peter Knights (1985), Paul Hudson (1991) and Jason Dunstall (1998), against Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon respectively.