Hawthorn will equal a 52 year old record if it can beat Brisbane Lions at Aurora Stadium this Sunday. The only other sequence of 12 consecutive wins in the club’s history was recorded in 1961, from Round 9 through to Grand Final, when the club won its first Premiership.

On two other occasions since then, the club had made it to 11 wins before failing when trying to make it 12. The 1971 Hawks had beaten all the other teams in the 12 team competition between Rounds 7 and 17, before suffering a 32 point loss to 4^th placed Richmond at the MCG in Round 18.

The 1975 Hawks winning sequence occurred in the identical rounds (7 to 17), but this time the Round 18 defeat was a much bigger upset, being against 10^th placed Fitzroy at the Junction Oval. A crowd of just 9,139 saw the Lions increase their lead at every change to win by 34 points, despite Leigh Matthews gathering 26 disposals and Michael Moncrieff booting 5 goals. Hawthorn supporters leaving the ground after the final siren had to listen to the public address system playing the Lions song many times. Let’s hope that the modern-day Lions cannot repeat history this week.

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Taylor Duryea has the chance this week to become just the third player in Hawthorn history to begin his career by playing in 10 consecutive winning teams.

The only others in this select group are Kelvin Moore (17) and Barry Rowlings (12), both of whose sequences were largely the product of the runs of 11 consecutive wins mentioned above.

Moore’s club record of 17 began with wins in the final two games of 1970 and was followed by playing in a further 15 winning teams in the first 17 games of the Hawks very successful 1971 season (fortunately not playing in the loss to Footscray in Round 6). The first loss in which Moore played was the Round 18 defeat by Richmond. He is actually equal second in VFL-AFL history behind Albert Lauder (Coll) 18 (1926-29) and equal with Alby Ingleman (Carl) 17 (1905-08).

Like Moore in 1971, Rowlings did not play in the Round 6 loss in 1975, but then added to the win in his Round 4 debut, by being in the team every week as it recorded the 11 consecutive wins from Rounds 7 to 17, before playing in the Round 18 loss to Fitzroy.

Following closely behind Duryea are his teammates Brian Lake (8 wins from debut) and Jonathan Simpkin (7). Another current Hawk, Shaun Burgoyne, played in wins in his first 7 Hawthorn appearances, following 14 consecutive wins at the start of his Port Adelaide career.

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Last Friday night was the first time Hawthorn had conceded 100 points in a game since the loss to Geelong in Round 19. That sequence of 18 games was the club’s longest since a run of 19 in 1964-65, every game of 1964 and Round 1 of 1965.

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Since Brisbane entered the league in 1987, the two clubs have met 41 times with the Hawks having recorded 25 victories and 16 defeats. After Hawthorn won 12 of the first 13 games between 1987 and 1995, the Lions won 10 of the 11 encounters between 2001 and early 2007, but now the Hawks have won 6 of the past 7 encounters. 

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Hawthorn has played 86 matches in Round 14 (having had byes in 1993 and 1994), with a record of 40 wins and 46 losses. The Hawks have won their last three games in this round beating the Western Bulldogs in 2010, Essendon in 2011 and Carlton in 2012, but have a way to go to equal their record of ten consecutive Round 14 wins between 1967 and 1976.

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5 years ago, in Round 14 2008, Hawthorn thrashed West Coast by 57 points at the MCG – 18.18.126 to 9.15.69. Jarryd Roughead kicked 6 goals and Lance Franklin 5, while leading possession-getters were Brent Guerra (29) and Grant Birchall (27).

40 years ago, in Round 14 1973, Hawthorn made it 4 wins in a row beating reigning Premier Carlton at Glenferrie by 22 points – 14.24.108 to 12.14.86. Both rovers, Peter Crimmins and Leigh Matthews, kicked 3 goals, with Matthews rated best followed by John Hendrie, Leon Rice, Kelvin Moore, Brian Douge and Geoff Ablett.

50 years ago, in Round 14 1963, Hawthorn won every quarter in a comprehensive 42 point win against Collingwood at Glenferrie – 15.9.99 to 8.9.57. John Peck kicked 5 goals.

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Jason Dunstall holds the club individual goal-kicking record against Brisbane, a mark he set when he booted 11 against the Bears in the first ever match between the two clubs at Carrara in 1987. The Round 14 individual goal-kicking record for Hawthorn is 12, kicked by Peter Hudson against Footscray at Glenferrie in 1968.