This Saturday Hawthorn is shooting for its 10th straight win at Aurora Stadium. Hawthorn best winning sequence at a venue is 12 at Princes Park in 1988-89, while at Waverley the Hawks won 11 in a row twice, in 1989-90 and in 1991-92. The Hawks also are currently on a 10-game winning streak at Docklands.
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Hawthorn has won all five matches it has played against Gold Coast, recording two victories at both the MCG and Metricon Stadium, and one at this round’s venue Aurora Stadium.
That one previous Aurora Stadium game was the first-ever match between the two clubs. Gold Coast were competitive in the first half, with the half-time margin being just 17 point, but the Hawks then kicked away to a 71 point win – 19.15.129 to 8.10.58. Two young Hawks, Luke Breust and Shane Savage, both kicked 4 goals, with Savage also accumulating 33 disposals. Best on ground was Sam Mitchell with 38 disposals, while Luke Hodge and Grant Birchall were also among the best.
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Angus Litherland has been part of winning teams in all 7 matches he has played for Hawthorn. He just needs one more win to enter the top 10 of most wins from Hawthorn debut. Several of his teammates are in the top ten, as Taylor Duryea began with 10 wins, Cyril Rioli (9), Brian Lake (9) and Jonathan Simpkin (8). However, Litherland will have a way to go to equal the all-time Hawthorn record of 17 set by Kelvin Moore in 1970-71.
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Round 15 has historically been one of Hawthorn’s best rounds with 46 wins, 2 draws and 41 defeats. In the 27 seasons from 1970 to 1996, Hawthorn’s Round 15 return was 24 wins and only 3 losses. More recently, Hawthorn won its Round 15 games from 2007 to 2009 and again in 2012, but lost in 2010, 2011 and 2013.
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5 years ago, in Round 15 2009, Hawthorn ended a run of three consecutive defeats, with a hard fought 9 point win against North Melbourne at Aurora Stadium. After leading at half-time, the Hawks slipped 14 points behind at the final change, but rallied to win 10.13.73 to 9.10.64. Brad Sewell got the 3 Brownlow votes having had 30 disposals and laid 10 tackles.
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20 years ago, in Round 15 1994, Hawthorn claimed another big scalp with a convincing 36 point win against Geelong at Waverley Park after trailing by 4 points at half-time. Hawthorn won 16.19.115 to 11.13.79. Darren Jarman and Ben Allan were outstanding in the midfield, while Jason Dunstall kicked 5 goals. Geelong went onto play in the 1994 Grand Final, and the Hawks had beaten both the Cats and their opponents the Eagles.
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30 years ago, in Round 15 1984, Hawthorn scored a solid 34 point win against Footscray at Princes Park – 16.14.110 to 10.16.76. Michael Tuck had 32 disposals and kicked 3 goals. Leigh Matthews also kicked 3, while Gary Ayres got the 3 Brownlow votes.
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Ten years earlier, in Round 15 1974, the Hawks also kicked 16.14.110 but this time restricted their opponent South Melbourne to just 4.7.31. A crowd of just 7,367 saw Charlie Grummisch kick 5 goals for the second week in a row. It was not enough to get him into the list of best players in the following week’s Football Record, which rated the best six as Peter Knights, Bohdan Jaworskyj, Brian Douge, Don Scott, Michael Tuck and Des Meagher.
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50 years ago, in Round 15 1964, Hawthorn beat North Melbourne in a very low-scoring encounter 7.7.49 to 5.8.38. It remains one of just 5 times in Hawthorn history when the team has won with a score of under 50 points. Interestingly, 3 of the 5 were against North Melbourne, the most recent one being at Arden Street in 1977 when Malcolm Blight kicked out on the full to ensure Hawthorn won by 1 point.
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The best individual return for a Hawthorn player in Round 15 is also 12 goals, recorded by Peter Hudson in a 23 point Hawthorn win against St Kilda at Glenferrie in 1971. The individual goal-kicking record for Hawthorn against Gold Coast is 5, held jointly by Luke Breust (2011), Lance Franklin (2013) and Jack Gunston (2014).
