This Friday night Hawthorn has the chance to achieve its best ever winning sequence against Collingwood. The Hawks have recorded winning sequences of 6 against Collingwood on four separate occasions (1982-84, 1985-88, 1989-92 and 2012- ) and hopefully it will be 4^th time lucky to secure a 7^th consecutive win.

The Magpies most recent win against the Hawks was in the 2011 Preliminary Final. Since then Hawthorn has beaten Collingwood 3 times in 2012, twice last season and again in Round 14 this season. In total, the head-to-head now has Hawthorn on 62 and Collingwood 96.

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This will be just the third occasion that Hawthorn has played Collingwood in the final round of the home and away season.

The most recent final round meeting was just 4 years ago, in Round 22 2010, with Hawthorn winning a thriller by 3 points – 15.8.98 to 13.17. 95 - in front of an MCG crowd of 76,218. Collingwood held a narrow advantage in a low-scoring first half, and maintained it as goals flowed more freely after half-time.

Victory looked beyond Hawthorn when Dane Swan put Collingwood 19 points ahead at the 16 minute mark of the last quarter. However, 4 goals in quick succession to Jarryd Roughead, Rhan Hooper, Clinton Young and Cyril Rioli gave Hawthorn a 5 point lead at the 24 minute mark. The quarter ended up going beyond 35 minutes, but neither team managed another goal. Sam Mitchell had 30 disposals, followed by Jordan Lewis and Rioli each with 27, while Lance Franklin kicked 6 goals.

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The only other time before 2010 that Hawthorn and Collingwood have clashed in the final round was in the wartime 1942 season when the last round was Round 16. The two teams went into the Victoria Park clash in the bottom two positions on the ladder, having won one game each, the Mayblooms against Collingwood at Glenferrie (their first ever victory in a meeting of the two clubs) while the Magpies had beaten Melbourne. However, because Collingwood had had two byes and Hawthorn only one, Collingwood was in the lucky situation of being 4 points ahead on the ladder, plus some percentage so, even if Hawthorn won, the wooden spoon was almost certainly Glenferrie-bound.

And win is what Hawthorn would have done if not for a disastrous second quarter, when outscored 9.10 to 0.2. A 10 point quarter time lead had become a 52 point half time deficit, yet the Mayblooms fought back so well that they got within 8 points half way through the final term.

The catalyst for the fightback was a half time move by coach Roy Cazaly which saw George Bennett shifted from full-back to centre half forward. The Sporting Globe reported that early in the third term “the tall veteran kicked two beautiful goals from some distance out”. Bennett followed this up by kicking 3 more goals in the final quarter, meaning he had kicked a total of 5 in the second half of the final game of the season, having only kicked one for the rest of the season. 1942 was Bennett’s first year back at Hawthorn after playing 7 seasons for Footscray.

Another to kick 5 goals was Jim Bohan, while other good players were Jack Burke, Tommy Lahiff, Jack King, Bob Williams and Harold Daly. The Sun particularly liked King’s game lauding his “brilliant dashes from the packs and long driving kicks”.

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The game against Collingwood in Round 16 1942 is also notable for being the only game of Alex Nash.  Nash has the tragic claim to fame of being the Hawthorn player to have died younger than any other. Pilot Officer Nash was just 21 years and 78 days old when the Beaufort bomber in which he was flying was shot down off Bourgainville on 28 March 1944. 

Nash was a local Auburn boy, whose father was on the Hawthorn committee. The half-back was on leave in Melbourne when originally named as an emergency for the game against Collingwood, but was then promoted to 19^th man. Press reports of the game indicate that he did not get onto the ground.

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Hawthorn takes an unbeaten Round 23 record into the coming weekend. There has only been a Round 23 in 6 previous AFL seasons - 1991, 1992, 1994, 2011, 2012 and 2013. Hawthorn had the bye in 1992 and recorded good wins in the other 5 years. This will be just the third occasion when it is the final round of the home and away season. 

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20 years ago, in Round 23 1994, the Hawks played in a tight encounter against the Brisbane Bears at the Gabba. Needing a win to sneak back into the Eight, Hawthorn dashed away to a 31 point quarter time, but the Bears fought back, before the Hawks steadied to win 15.12.102 to 13.13.91. The star of the day was Jason Dunstall, the first of his 6 goals being his 1000^th career goal, becoming just the third player after Gordon Coventry and Doug Wade to reach the mark (Tony Lockett and Gary Ablett Snr. did so subsequently).

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Jason Dunstall holds the Hawthorn record for most goals in a game versus Collingwood, having booted 11 in both 1989 and 1990. Next best was Michael Moncrieff’s 10 in 1976.

Dunstall also holds the Round 23 record with 6, recorded in 1994 (see above).