Sam Grimley has become the first Hawthorn player for more than a decade to kick a goal with his first kick in AFL football.

The most recent incidence was an odd one as Mark Williams did so in his second game (in Round 2 2002), after failing to get a kick in his first match. 

Other Hawks recorded as having goaled with their first kick (all on debut) are Leigh Matthews, Michael Tuck, Michael Cooke, Jason Dunstall, Tim Hargreaves, Luke McPharlin, Tim Hazell and Michael Osborne. 

Tuck and Hargreaves both achieved the rare feat of kicking three goals from their first three kicks.

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Hawthorn has won its last nine matches against Melbourne. The second win of the sequence squared the ledger at 74-74 in the head-to-head battle between the clubs, for the first time since it was 0-0 in 1925. The subsequent seven wins have put Hawthorn in front – 81 to 74, after 155 games.

The Hawks have a long way to go to equal the club’s all-time best sequence against Melbourne which is 22, set between 1973 and 1984, which is the club’s best-ever sequence of success against any opponent. Hawthorn has currently also won its last nine games against Carlton, while the next best current sequences are four wins against Collingwood, Fremantle, Gold Coast, Port Adelaide and the Western Bulldogs.

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Hawthorn’s most recent Round 10 meeting with Melbourne was 30 years ago in 1983, a game perhaps most notable in hindsight for featuring the debut of future champion Chris Langford. He performed well on debut gathering 20 disposals and kicking a goal.

Going into the Waverley Park game, Hawthorn (5-4) were only one win better off than the Demons (4-5) and half way through the second quarter it looked like both teams would end the afternoon at 5-5, as Melbourne had got out to a 27 point lead. Enter Ken Judge. Judge had had an indifferent start to his Hawthorn career in the first few rounds of the season since his off-season arrival from East Fremantle, but now snapped a goal from deep in the pocket. It was to be the first of 7 for Judge, capping off a big week, as his wife had given birth to their second child earlier in the week.

After still trailing by 10 points at half-time, the Hawks added 16.4 to 4.4 in the second half to win 27.9.171 to 16.13.109. Apart from Judge, the best players were Terry Wallace, David Polkinghorne, Russell Shields, Richard Loveridge and Michael Tuck.   

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20 years ago, in Round 10 1993, 5^th placed Hawthorn travelled to the Western Oval to take on 6^th placed Footscray and won by 70 points – 20.12.132 to 9.8.62. Jason Dunstall kicked 8, including one of the goals of the season, and Paul Hudson 4.  John Platten and Anthony Condon were outstanding in the midfield.

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50 years ago, in Round 10 1963, Hawthorn won the football game, but lost the services of one of the most brilliant players in the club’s history.

Brendan Edwards, best-on-ground in Hawthorn’s 1961 Grand Final win, had quit football in 1962 to devote himself to a new fitness centre he was developing. When the project was delayed, he got the opportunity to return to football in 1963. Edwards was in career best form against Richmond at Punt Road in Round 10 when, at the ten minute mark of the third quarter, he suffered a serious knee injury. Despite an attempted comeback a few years later, Edwards never played again.

Hawthorn won the game 11.14.80 to 4.10.34, and had the unusual scenario where all its goalkickers were multiples. Alan Joyce kicked 3, while Graham Arthur, Kevin Coverdale, Des Dickson and Garry Young all contributed 2 majors.

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Hawthorn’s Round 10 record is currently evenly poised at 44 wins and 44 defeats. In the decade between 2000 and 2009, Round 10 was Hawthorn’s hoodoo round, with just one win, coming in 2007 when Hawthorn beat Port Adelaide at Football Park. Things have improved in the past three years. In 2010, the Hawks snuck home by 2 points against Sydney at the MCG; in 2011 they recorded a comfortable 29 point win against the Western Bulldogs; and last season thrashed North Melbourne by 115 points.

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The leading individual goalkicker for Hawthorn against Melbourne is Peter Hudson who booted 16 goals at Glenferrie in Round 5, 1969. Last season, Lance Franklin set a new club Round 10 goal-kicking record of 13, easily surpassing the previous round record of 9, held jointly by Peter Knights (1985), Paul Hudson (1991) and Jason Dunstall (1998), against Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon respectively.