There will be three important individual milestones in this week’s Qualifying Final.

Sam Mitchell will play his 259^th game which will take him past John Platten and into the top ten on the list of games played for Hawthorn. Platten’s stellar career from 1986 to 1997 included four Premierships, two best and fairests and a Brownlow Medal.

Brad Sewell will play his 200^th game, and become the fifth Hawthorn player to reach the milestone in a final. Alan Martello (1978), Geoff Ablett (1982) and John Platten (1994) also played their 200^th games in Qualifying Finals, while Don Scott reached his in memorable style in the 1976 Grand Final as he captained the Hawks to the Flag. 

Overall, Sewell will become the 30^th Hawthorn player to reach 200 games and the third this year, following Jordan Lewis and Jarryd Roughead.

Liam Shiels will play his 100^th game. He will be just the second Hawk, following Shaun Burgoyne, to reach the milestone having debuted after the 2008 Premiership success.

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2014 has become the 10^th season when Hawthorn has finished second on the ladder at the end of the home and away season. On the nine previous occasions, Hawthorn has won the Flag 5 times (1976, 1978, 1983, 1991 and 2008), finished runners up twice (1984 and 1987) and third twice (1977 and 1982).

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Hawthorn and Geelong have met in eight previous Finals with the Hawks holding a 5-3 advantage.

The Hawks won matches in 1989, 1991, 2000, 2008 and 2013, with the Cats winning in 1963 (twice) and the 2011 Qualifying Final. At the MCG, the record is 3-3, as Hawthorn won Finals matches at Waverley in 1991 and Docklands in 2000. Apart from the comparatively comfortable margin of 26 points in the 2008 Grand Final, Hawthorn’s Finals successes against the Cats have been by narrow margins – 6, 2, 9 and 5. Overall, the Hawks and Cats have played 155 times, with Hawthorn winning 69, Geelong 85 and one draw.

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Hawthorn has a good record in Qualifying Finals, having won 11 and lost 5. The record looks even better if one excludes the different types of Qualifying Finals under the original McIntyre Eight (1994-99) which carried the risk of elimination – Hawthorn played two of them and lost both. Overall, the Hawks’ Finals record is 47 wins and 28 defeats from 75 games.

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There were also two goalkicking milestones achieved in the Collingwood game.

Jarryd Roughead went past Dermott Brereton career record of 427 goals. Roughead is now in seventh place on the club list with 428.

The fourth of Jack Gunston’s five goals took him to 50 for the season, joining Roughead and Luke Breust in reaching that figure in 2014. 

This season thus joins 1977 and 1984 as one of the only seasons when three different individual Hawks reached 50 goals. In 1977, the three players to reach 50 goals for the season were Peter Hudson (110), Leigh Matthews (91), and John Hendrie (52), while in 1984 it was Matthews again (77), Ken Judge (63), and Dermot Brereton (50).

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30 years ago, in the 1984 Qualifying Final, Hawthorn beat Carlton by 30 points – 18.14.122 to 13.14.92. Hawthorn began brilliantly getting out to a 3 goal lead at quarter time and held the lead for much of the game. Leigh Matthews kicked 6 goals and Ken Judge 3.

The Age reported that “none was better than Matthews … his superiority over the opposition was highlighted at the 16 minute mark of the first quarter when he went up over a pack, hung for what seemed like several seconds, and then brought the ball down to earth and passed to Judge”. Matthews was also assisted by the fact that his long-time Carlton nemesis Rod Austin had to leave the ground after a collision with Robert Dipierdomenico. Dipierdomenico played a brilliant game and kicked a superb goal in the last quarter. Some rated him best-on-ground, while others chose Russell Greene or Michael Byrne, while others included in the best players were Colin Robertson, Chris Langford and Rod Lester-Smith.

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Hawthorn also played in Qualifying Finals 20 and 40 years ago, on both occasions against North Melbourne. Both games ended in defeat. In 1974, the game was close for three quarters with Hawthorn leading by 5 points at half-time and trailing by 5 at the final change, before falling away badly in the last quarter to lose 8.17.65 to 15.13.103. John Hendrie and Peter Knights were the Hawks best.

In 1994, Hawthorn became the first team to lose a Final in extra time. Scores were tied at full-time with Hawthorn 13.13.91 level with North’s 12.19.91. Unfortunately, the Hawks failed to score in extra time while North added 3.5. It had been a brave effort from the Hawks as 6^th taking on the 3^rd and suffering from a couple of late withdrawals. John Platten in his 200^th game was outstanding with 37 disposals.