Hawthorn will need to beat GWS this week to avoid losing three games in a row for the first time since 2010.
The longest period without losing three in a row in club history was eight years (1985-1993). After losing the 1984 Grand Final and the first two games of 1985, the Hawks did not lose three consecutive games until Rounds 18 to 20 of the 1993 season. In fact, if you exclude the three defeats across the 1984-85 seasons, Hawthorn did not lose three consecutive games in the same season from late in 1981 to 1993. The current sequence is the second longest in club history having eclipsed one from 1975 to 1979 earlier in the season.
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The Adelaide Oval crowd of 52,233 last Saturday night was the first time when Hawthorn has played in front of a 50,000 plus attendance at a non-Victorian venue. The previous record crowd which has watched Hawthorn outside its home state was 46,689 at Football Park when Hawthorn beat Adelaide in Round 6 1993. Adelaide Oval joins the MCG, Waverley and Docklands as grounds where the Hawks have been watched by attendances of over 50,000.
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Adelaide Oval has become the 29th venue at which Hawthorn has played a VFL-AFL game. The loss to Port Adelaide continued Hawthorn’s poor record in first games at venues. Of the 29 venues, the Hawks only won first-up at the SCG, Carrara, North Hobart, Docklands and Aurora Stadium.
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Hawthorn has played GWS twice before winning by 162 points at the MCG in 2012 and 83 points at Aurora Stadium in Round 8 last season. In the three seasons that the Giants have been in the AFL, the Hawks have yet to be fixtured to play them away.
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Hawthorn takes a good recent record in Round 11 into Sunday’s game having won their last 5, before having a bye in the round last season. The sequence includes two wins by the appropriate margin of 11 points (MCG victories against Sydney in 2009 and Port Adelaide in 2010). In the Hawks most recent Round 11 game in 2012, they beat Port Adelaide at Football Park by 46 points.
Despite the recent good results, Round 11 remains overall one of Hawthorn’s worst rounds, with the club winning just 35 of the 88 games, with 51 defeats and two draws.
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The Hawks have currently played exactly 300 games at the MCG, recording 169 wins, 130 losses and one draw at the ground. Hawthorn’s winning percentage of 56.50 at the MCG is the second best of any club, only exceeded by Essendon (59.16).
Hawthorn also has the remarkable record of having achieved the three greatest winning margins at the MCG - 165 (PA, 2011), 162 (GWS, 2012) and 160 (Ess, 1992), with the next highest by another club being 151. Things certainly improved from Hawthorn’s first game at the MCG in 1926, when the club suffered what remains its heaviest ever defeat going down to Melbourne by 143 points and kicking what remains the club record low score of 1.7.13.
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30 years ago, in Round 11 1984, Hawthorn recorded a solid 32 point win against Collingwood in front of a holiday Monday crowd of 62,339 at Waverley. Leigh Matthews kicked 6 behinds before his first goal but then straightened up to finish with 4.7, helping to turn around a 9 point deficit early in the third term. One of the keys to Hawthorn win was that, as The Age reported, Collingwood star Peter Daicos “was beaten pointlessly by David Polkinghorne, an ungainly player who wouldn’t know what it means to disappoint his team mates or his club”. Other good players were Robert Dipierdomenico, Gary Ayres, Russell Greene and Ken Judge (5 goals).
50 years ago, in Round 11 1964, Hawthorn restricted Footscray to just 3.3.21, a score which remains the second lowest ever kicked against the Hawks. The Bulldogs had 3.2 at half-time and only managed a behind in the third quarter before failing to score in the final term. Hawthorn kicked 12.9.81 with John Peck contributing 7 goals.
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The Round 11 individual goal-kicking record is held by Peter Hudson who kicked 13 goals against South Melbourne at Glenferrie in 1969. Jarryd Roughead has the record against GWS with 6 in 2012 and also has the second best tally of 5 in 2013.
