Could Hawthorn be about to have joint leading goalkickers for the first time?
Never, in its 93 season VFL-AFL history has Hawthorn had joint leading goalkickers, but this could be the year, as Jarryd Roughead and Luke Breust enter the final match locked together on 33 goals.
Despite there not being joint winners, there have been many previous close finishes, with 11 decided by three goals or fewer, including four by just a solitary goal. The most recent of these was in 2003 when Nathan Thompson edged out Angelo Lekkas with 38 goals to 37, while others were in 1936, 1972 and 1997.
Leigh Matthews was Hawthorn’s goal-kicking six times, but narrowly missed out in two other seasons. In the final game of 1972, against St Kilda, he kicked three goals, but Peter Knights’ single major was enough to retain a narrow 46 to 45 lead. In 1985, Matthews went into the Grand Final leading the Hawks’ season goals tally by five and added one more, but was passed by Dermott Brereton who kicked eight goals to claim the honour by 58 to 56.
The tightest finish probably belongs to 1936, when the top three were Norm Hillard (26 goals), Alf Hurley (25) and Jack Green (24). Hillard began the final game in third place, but with Green not playing, and Hurley failing to goal, Hillard’s four goals gave him the title.
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Most Hawthorn Premiership captains have played their final games in Finals. However, this Friday night Luke Hodge will join Graham Arthur and Don Scott as Premiership captains who finished their illustrious careers in home and away games. Arthur and Scott did so in the final rounds of 1968 and 1981 respectively.
Arthur was still the skipper when Hawthorn held off a fast-finishing Fitzroy to win a high-scoring encounter at Princes Park in Round 20 1968. Arthur was among Hawthorn’s best players. 13 years later, Don Scott also played his last game in brown and gold at Princes Park, and again it was the Hawks who won the game, beating Melbourne by 53 points. Scott was excellent with 26 hit-outs, 24 disposals and a goal. Like Hodge, Scott had relinquished the leadership at the end of the preceding season.
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Hawthorn will be playing the Western Bulldogs in the final round of the home and away season for the first since 2000. Then, like this week, it was on a Friday night at Docklands and victory secured the Hawks a spot in the Finals for the first time in four seasons, or at least it did by Sunday when Richmond lost to finish 9th again.
In Round 22 2000, Hawthorn 11.15.81 defeated the Bulldogs 9.12.66 in front of a bumper crowd of 45,527. Paul Salmon was best-on-ground, Nick Holland kicked three goals, and the leading possession-getters were Daniel Harford and Tony Woods. The 2000 Hawks returned to Docklands the following Friday night and recording a thrilling nine point win over 5th-placed Geelong in an Elimination Final.
Read: Comparing the Hawks and Dogs seasons - who's had it worse?
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Hawthorn played eight home games at Docklands from 2000 to 2006, and has had further ones there in 2013 and 2015. The Hawks have only won four of these ten games, but overall have won 41, lost 27 and drawn one of 69 games at the venue.
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Before the defeat in last season’s Semi Final, Hawthorn had won eight consecutive games against the Bulldogs. That run of wins had given the Hawks a narrow lead in the head-to-head history between the two clubs, which now sits at 81-76, with two draws.
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Hawthorn takes an unbeaten Round 23 record into the coming weekend. There has only been a Round 23 in nine previous AFL seasons – 1991-92, 1994, and from 2011 onwards. Hawthorn had the bye in 1992 and recorded wins in the other eight years. This will be the sixth occasion when it is the final round of the home and away season.
The first occasion when Round 23 ended the season was five years ago in 2012. At the MCG, on Friday night, 50,023 fans saw Hawthorn record a 25 point win against West Coast – 14.11.95 to 10.10.70 - setting up the win with a 7.1 to 1.3 first quarter. The victory guaranteed the minor premiership for the Hawks, ahead of Adelaide of percentage. The one dampener on the evening was that Brent Guerra pulled a hamstring late in the game, an injury that saw him miss the entire Finals Series.
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Apart from the Olympic year of 2000 when Hawthorn was eliminated in a Semi Final on 18 August, this will be Hawthorn’s earliest finish to a VFL-AFL season since 1964 when the final game (against Richmond at Punt Road) was on 22 August.
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Hawthorn will finish the 2017 season in either 12th or 13th position on the ladder, which will be the club’s lowest finishing position since 14th in 2005. The only previous occasion when the Hawks finished 13th was in 1998, when wins in the last five games of the season lifted the team away from what had seemed likely to be a wooden spoon. Hawthorn’s most recent 12th placing was back in 1965 when, in a 12-team competition that did mean a wooden spoon.
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Jason Dunstall holds the record against the Western Bulldogs kicking 14 goals in Round 19 1996. He also holds the Round 23 record with a tally of six, which included his 1000th career goal, against Brisbane at the Gabba in 1994.
