It happened in both 1983 and 1991, with the club being 4th and 7th respectively in the two seasons. The second halves of the two seasons have a striking similarity with 1983 seeing the only defeats in Rounds 19 and 20, while in 1991 the sole defeat was in the 20th game in a season where there were byes. In both seasons, the Hawks then reeled off three Finals wins to clinch the Flag.
2009 is far from being the worst start to a Premiership defence in the club’s history. There were two that were worse - 1962 when the club was 4-7 after 11 rounds, and 1979 when it was 5-6, after a shock one point loss to Footscray in Round 11 of that season. The most recent Flag defence, in 1992, saw the Hawks with a 6-5 record at the half-way mark, the same as currently.
Jade Rawlings will this week become the 19th individual to have played for Hawthorn and then coached another League club. The 18th was Ben Allan who took over the coaching duties in similar circumstances at Fremantle, when the winless Dockers sacked Damian Drum after nine rounds of the 2001 season. Allan coached Fremantle to two wins in 13 games, the first a Round 18 come-from-behind upset against Hawthorn at Docklands.
Given Hawthorn’s lowly status for many seasons, it is no surprise that the first five individuals on the list of 18 had far more significant playing careers at other clubs than they did at Hawthorn. The first person to play exclusively for Hawthorn, and then coach another club, was Rod Olsson (116 games for the Hawks (1962-69), who coached at Geelong in the 1970s.
As the Hawks became more successful, it became fashionable to get an ex-Hawthorn coach. Indeed, seven of the 20 players in the 1983 Premiership team subsequently coached other clubs.
Only four of the 18 have coached another team to the Premiership. Two are among the most famous names in modern football, David Parkin (Carlton 1981, 1982 and 1995) and Leigh Matthews (Collingwood 1990, Brisbane Lions 2001, 2002, 2003).
The first two to play for Hawthorn and coach another team to a Flag actually did so in the reverse order – coached another team to a Flag before playing for Hawthorn!
Dan Minogue had been captain-coach of Richmond’s back-to-back Premiership teams of 1920-21 (having earlier captained Collingwood) by the he arrived at Hawthorn as captain-coach in 1926. However, injury in Round 1, 1926 meant that he only played one game for the Mayblooms, bringing his illustrious playing career to an end. After two seasons coaching Hawthorn, he subsequently coached Carlton, St Kilda and Fitzroy, getting closest to a third Flag when Carlton lost the 1932 Grand Final by nine points to Richmond.
Bert Chadwick coached Melbourne to the 1926 Premiership, before spending a season as captain-coach of Hawthorn in 1929 – he played 17 games in brown and gold.
So, Hawthorn players have coached more Premierships at other clubs (a total of ten) than they have at Hawthorn, where six of the ten Premierships have been coached by ex-Hawk players – John Kennedy Snr (3), Alan Joyce (2) and David Parkin (1). Of course, these three are also all members of the list of 18 to have coached other clubs.
The only rival clubs never to have had a Hawthorn player coach them are Essendon and Port Adelaide.
Cyril Rioli’s hamstring injury has ended any chance he had of breaking the club record for most consecutive games from debut. Rioli had played 36 consecutive games since his debut in Round 1 last season, which means his run ends a long way off David O’Halloran’s record of 74 which he set from Round 1, 1976, until he was unluckily injured in the 1978 Second Semi Final and forced to miss the Grand Final.
Two Hawthorn players would have sequences of 100 from debut, if they had not been “unlucky” enough to be selected in State teams which played on the same day as Hawthorn. Allan Woodley would have had a sequence of 110 from his debut in Round 1, 1954 until he went overseas after Round 18, 1959, while Ian Law would have had one of exactly 100 from his debut in Round 12, 1960, if not for his appearances in the Victorian team.
It was three years ago this round, at this week’s venue Aurora Stadium, that Lance Franklin began his sequence of scoring in the last 69 games he has played. In the past three years, he has only missed playing in two matches - Rounds 12 and 17 of 2007.
Playing just his third game for 2006, he began the sequence in style with a then career high of 6 as the Hawks scored an upset win over Richmond. Interestingly, the other multiple goal-kickers that day were Ben Dixon 3 and Luke Brennan 2.
Franklin needs to score at least one goal in each of his next three games to equal Jason Dunstall’s club record of scoring in 72 consecutive games from 1987 to 1990.
This round marks the 25th anniversary of a great Hawthorn match-of-the-day win. In Round 12, 1984 the two teams which had contested the previous year’s Grand Final and were a mile clear of the other ten teams on the ladder met at Princes Park.
In their previous meeting for the season the Hawks had scraped home by 6 points at Windy Hill in Round 2. This time the Hawks were dominant in overcast and damp conditions winning 12.21.93 to 6.10.46. Essendon were within a point early in second quarter, but the Hawks then added the next five, including booming goals just before half time from Gary Ayres and Peter Schwab, which established a 34 point half time lead. The two teams only managed only five goals between them in the second half as the rain became steadier.
One of the highlights was the inclusion in the Hawthorn side of Kelvin Moore to play on Essendon’s gun full-forward, Paul Salmon (who had booted 58 goals in the first 11 games of the season). An article in the following week’s Football Record described how Moore had put the disappointment of missing the previous year’s Grand Final and “proved the worth of his experience”. It described how “Moore stuck close to Salmon all day and backed his judgement to punch the ball clear to Hawthorn’s running backmen, Russell Greene, Rodney Eade and Gary Ayres”. The article concluded that “it was a most pleasing performance for Hawk supporters, who have great admiration for Moore’s reliability and leadership in defence”.
The list of best players was headed by Mews, Ayres, Tuck, Dipierdomenico, Brereton, Greene and Eade. The leading goal-kickers were Judge, McCarthy and Brereton with 2 each.
Since Brisbane entered the League in 1987, the two clubs have met 37 times with the Hawks having recorded 22 victories and 15 defeats. The Lions won 10 of the 11 encounters between 2001 and early 2007, but the Hawks have won the past three encounters – by 24 points at the MCG in Round 19, 2007, by 12 points at the Gabba in Round 5 last season and by 69 points in Round 19 in Shane Crawford’s 300th game. That encounter was the two teams’ only previous meeting at Aurora Stadium.
Hawthorn has won 35 and lost 49 of its 84 Round 12 matches. The club has had reasonable success in this round in recent seasons with six wins in the past eight Round 12 matches, including the past three. In 2006 the Hawks scored a 41 point victory against Richmond in Launceston, in 2007 thrashed Carlton by 100 points at Docklands and last season a late Luke Hodge goal recorded an epic 4 point win over Adelaide, the clubs first win against the Crows at Football Park since 1994.
Jason Dunstall holds the individual goal-kicking record both against Brisbane and for Round 12. He booted 11 against the Bears in the first ever match between the two clubs at Carrara in 1987, later equalling his record for the round against Sydney at the SCG in 1994.
