THIS Friday night, Shaun Burgoyne will become just the second player in VFL-AFL history to play 150 games at two different clubs.

Burgoyne played 157 games for Port Adelaide from 2002 to 2009 and this week against Essendon he will make his 150^th appearance in the brown and gold.

The only other player to achieve the feat was Bernie Quinlan who played 177 games for Footscray and 189 for Fitzroy in a total career of 366 games from 1969 to 1986.

Roger Merrett just missed out on joining this select group, as he played 149 games at Essendon and 164 at Brisbane.

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There is a special Hawthorn birthday this week, as club legend Graham Arthur turns 80 on Thursday 9 June.

Arthur was captain of the club’s first Premiership team in 1961 and in total was the skipper in what remains a club record of 153 games.

He also coached the team in 1964-65. In his 232 game career from 1955 to 1968 he kicked 201 goals and won the club best and fairest on three occasions, starting in his debut year of 1955 and also in 1958 and 1962.

In Hawthorn’s 30 VFL seasons before Arthur’s arrival at the club, Hawthorn had only finished in the top half of the ladder once and had never made the finals. The club made the finals for the first time in Arthur’s third season, won its first Premiership in his seventh and, in no small part due to his contribution, has gone on to become the most successful club of the modern era.

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Kade Stewart has become the third Hawthorn senior player to come to the club from WAFL club South Fremantle.

The previous two players which Hawthorn recruited from the WAFL’s Bulldogs were Nathan Turvey (who played 10 games for Hawthorn in 1998-99) and 2008 Premiership star Mark Williams. All three originally came from the Great Southern region of WA.

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Hawthorn has reached the half-way mark of the home and away season with an 8-3 record.It has gone on to win the Premiership from this situation on one previous occasion, which was as recently as 2014.

Since the 22-game season began in 1970, Hawthorn has twice (1983 and 1991) won the flag having had 6-5 records after 11 games and last year won after a 7-4 record at half-way. The most common routes to Premierships have been via 10-1 and 9-2 records at the half-way mark, which have featured four times each.

In the days of 18-game home and away seasons, Hawthorn had a 5-4 record at the half-way mark of the 1961 season, which improved to 7-4 after 11 games, as the club headed towards its historic first Premiership.

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The loss to Essendon in Round 2 last season ended a run of five consecutive Hawthorn wins against the Bombers, which only just failed to equal the club record of six consecutive wins against them, set in 1987-89 and equalled in 2005-08.

The Hawks avenged the Round 2 loss in Round 13 with a 38-point win. Overall, the two clubs have played each other 158 times, with the Hawks winning 62 and losing 96. The two clubs have met eight times at Docklands with the Hawks winning five of the last six, after suffering heavy losses in the opening two visits in 2000 and 2001.

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Hawthorn has a good recent record in Round 12, with eight wins out of the past ten games in the round. However, the overall record in Round 12 games is not as impressive, with 40 wins and 51 losses in the 91 seasons from 1925 to 2015.

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Ten years ago, in Round 12 2006, a crowd of 20,971 crammed into Aurora Stadium to watch Hawthorn take on Richmond, a figure which remains a record for a Hawthorn home game at the venue.

The Terry Wallace coached Tigers (with a 6-5 record) went in as favourites against a Hawks side which had lost its last six matches. However, it was Hawthorn which proceeded to win every quarter and end up with a 41-point victory – 16.9 (105) to 8.16 (64). Sam Mitchell. Lance Franklin, Tim Clarke and Clinton Young were among the best for the Hawks.

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Twenty years ago, in Round 12 1996, Hawthorn played its last ever game against Fitzroy, winning by 31 points at Waverley Park – 17.12 (114) to 12.11 (83). Nick Holland was a clear best-on-ground for the Hawks pulling in 16 marks and kicking six goals.

In total, Hawthorn played 116 games against Fitzroy for 63 wins, 52 defeats and one draw. The Roys best winning run against Hawthorn was six from 1944 to 1948, while the Hawks managed a sequence of 15 wins from 1963 to 1971. However, Hawthorn did struggle to win away to Fitzroy when the Junction Oval was the Lions home ground from 1970 to 1984, winning there on just four occasions and suffering eight defeats.

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Thirty years ago, in Round 12 1986, a stunning 8.5 to 1.5 third quarter not only erased a 14-point half-time deficit, but set the Hawks on track to a comfortable win against arch-rival Carlton. Dermott Brereton, who had had a quiet first half, sparked the Hawks into action in the third quarter with a couple of strong marks and goals. The Blues did get back within nine points in the last quarter, but a coast-to-coast goal beginning with Chris Langford and ending with Jason Dunstall sealed the result.

The game had been shifted to the MCG on a Sunday and a crowd of 57,634 saw Hawthorn win 19.19 (133) to 16.14 (110). Dunstall kicked six goals and Brereton four, while the best players were headed by captain Michael Tuck, Terry Wallace, John Platten and Richard Loveridge.

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The best individual goalkicking performance by a Hawthorn player against Essendon is 12 by Jason Dunstall in 1992, followed by 11 by Leigh Matthews in 1973 and 10 by Michael Moncrieff in 1972. Jason Dunstall holds the individual goal-kicking record for Hawthorn in Round 12 – with 11 at Carrara in 1987, which he later equaled against Sydney at the SCG in 1994.