At this stage of his career, Luke Breust has a remarkably similar record to former Hawthorn champion Gary Buckenara. Breust has played 151 games and kicked 290 goals, while in his illustrious career in brown and gold Buckenara played 153 games and kicked 293 goals.

Buckenara finished with four premierships by the end of his career, while Breust is currently on target with three of his own.

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Shaun Burgoyne will reach some noteworthy career games milestones in the next two weeks. 

Burgoyne has currently played 331 AFL games (157 with Port Adelaide and 171 with Hawthorn) which places him in 24th place on the all-time VFL-AFL games list. This week he will join Leigh Matthews and two others on 332 games and the following week he will enter the top twenty when he joins Kevin Murray and David Cloke on 333 games. 

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So far, Hawthorn has a much better record against the Crows at the Adelaide Oval than it did against them at Football Park. The Hawks have won their only two matches versus Adelaide at Adelaide Oval, by 12 points in 2014 and 29 points in 2015.

Between 1991 and 2013, the Hawks travelled to Football Park to play Adelaide on 15 occasions, but only won four times. The brown and gold victories at the West Lakes venue were in 1993, 1994, 2008 and 2013. Three of those wins were by under three goals, but the 1994 win was actually by a bigger margin than any of the home team’s wins against the Hawks. 

In Round 9 1994, Hawthorn obliterated the Crows by 97 points – 22.13.145 to 7.6.48. The victory was built on amazing first and third quarters, in both of which Adelaide failed to score, while the Hawks kicked 8.1 and 8.5 respectively. The stars were Jason Dunstall who kicked five in the opening term on his way to nine and John Platten who kicked a career-high six goals.  

Read: Five players to watch when the Hawks take on the Crows

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An oddity of the two Hawk victories against the Crows at Adelaide Oval was that neither saw a Hawthorn player get the three Brownlow votes as Patrick Dangerfield got the three votes in both games. In 2014, Luke Hodge got two votes and Jonathan Simpkin one (the only vote of his AFL career), while in 2015 Liam Shiels was the sole Hawks’ vote-getter with two.

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Prior to the loss in Round 2 this season, Hawthorn had won seven consecutive games against Adelaide. That defeat pushed the Hawks back to a deficit of three in the head-to-head battle between the clubs, trailing 21 to 18.

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Things can change quickly in football. Ten years ago, in Round 14 2007, Hawthorn managed to kick just 4.7.31 against Adelaide at Football Park, losing by 71 points. Yet, a couple of months later Hawthorn was able to beat the same opponent in a thrilling Elimination Final and a year later go onto claim a Flag, with 17 of the defeated 22 from the Football Park debacle becoming Premiership players. 

That score of 4.7.31 ten years ago has remained the lowest of the Clarkson era. In fact, when Hawthorn scored 6.12.48 against Geelong in Round 4 this season it brought to an end the second longest sequence in Hawthorn history of recording scores over 50. Prior to the Geelong game, the last Hawthorn score of below 50 was 5.16.46 against West Coast at Subiaco in Round 4 2012. The only longer sequence without a score below 50 was from mid-1987 to late-1993. 

Read: Opposition analysis Round 14

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Unlike the change after Round 14 2007, the change in football performance ten years earlier was not so good. 

In Round 14 1997, the Hawks made it five wins in a row with a comfortable win against Port Adelaide in the first ever meeting between the two clubs. Hawthorn won 18.16.124 to 13.14.92 with Aaron Lord booting six goals, John Platten combining 34 disposals with three goals, and both Tony Woods and Darren Kappler also excellent.

The victory took the Hawks to an 8-6 record for the 1997 season and up to fifth on the ladder. However, things then feel apart as the team failed to win another game for the season and slumped to 15th place on the ladder. The losing run only ended in Round 5 of the following season and this sequence of 12 consecutive defeats is the worst in modern Hawthorn history. 

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30 years ago, in Round 14 1987, Hawthorn recorded a one point win – 12.8.80 to 12.7.79 – in a game of fluctuating fortunes against Carlton. Part way through the second quarter the Hawks trailed by 34 points, but then rallied to lead by 19 in the last term, before Carlton in turn fought back. Chris Mew and Robert Dipierdomenico had been the only good players early, but others, such as Dermott Brereton with 12 marks and three goals, became significant factors later in the game. A crowd of 44,385 went to Waverley for the meeting of the top two teams of the period.

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Overall, Hawthorn has played 90 matches in Round 14, recording 44 wins and 46 losses (and had the bye in both 1993 and 1994). The Hawks have won their last seven games in this round beating the Western Bulldogs (2010), Essendon (2011), Carlton (2012), Brisbane Lions (2013), Collingwood (2014 and 2015) and Gold Coast last season.

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Jason Dunstall holds the record against Adelaide, kicking nine goals on three separate occasions against the Crows – in 1993 and 1994 (both at Football Park) and in 1996 (at Waverley). The Round 14 individual goal-kicking record for Hawthorn is 12, kicked by Peter Hudson against Footscray at Glenferrie in 1968.