Alastair Clarkson has moved to fifth place on the games coached list at Hawthorn. 

He began the season in equal 6th place with Alan Joyce on 93 games, and has passed him and David Parkin, who had been in 5th place on 94.

Further, a win this Saturday against Port Adelaide will be Clarkson’s 50th as coach.  His current record is 49 wins and 47 defeats from his 96 games in charge.

Clarkson is on track to coach his 100th game in Round 7.  The four Hawthorn coaches to have already reached the 100 are John Kennedy (299), Allan Jeans (221), Jack Hale (146) and Peter Schwab (109).



Last weekend saw the tragic news of the death of former Hawthorn player, Robert Dickson.
Dickson made his Hawthorn debut at the unusually advanced age of 24 against Carlton in Round 1, 1988 (another debutant that day was Tony Hall).  He kicked a goal on debut and scored in each of his first five games.  He played seven games in 1988, six in 1989 and four in 1990 playing his final game in Round 8 of that season, like his debut, it was against Carlton.  His career totals for Hawthorn were 17 games and 12 goals and then in 1991, he played two games for Brisbane.  He later served as Hawthorn runner and his success as a film-maker has been well documented.

Dickson is not the first former Hawthorn player to die in a car accident.  Others include Rolland Fairley, Phil Manning (both in 1930, at the ages of 25 and 24 respectively) and Ray Gibb (aged 24 in 1953).



Grant Birchall’s injury means that this week he will lose his status as the current Hawthorn player with the longest ongoing sequence of consecutive games.  He has played 63 in a row, the sequence having begun in Round 12, 2006 (his debut season).  Unusually, Birchall’s absence will mean that the three leading players on the consecutive games list will all be forwards – Roughead (currently 45), Franklin (35) and Rioli (28).

The record for most consecutive games for Hawthorn is held by Andrew Collins, who played 189 in a row from Round 19, 1988 to Round 22, 1996.



This Saturday will be Hawthorn’s tenth home game against Port Adelaide since the Power joined the League in 1997.  The first two were at Waverley where the results were split 1-1.  Three of games have been held at Aurora Stadium where the Power won the first two matches (2002 and 2007), until the Hawks pulled one back with a 15 point win in Round 8, last season.

There have been four previous games at the MCG, with the Hawks winning the first encounter in 2000, while Port has won the last three matches in 2001, 2003 and 2004.

So overall in home games the Hawks trail 3-6, and are also behind 2-6 in away games, but of course the Hawks did triumph when it mattered most, by three points in a 2001 Semi Final at Football Park.  That makes the overall record 6-12 in the Power’s favour.



Hawthorn’s one win against at the MCG against Port Adelaide came in Round 20, 2000.  It was the first in a sequence of three late season wins that saw the Hawks clinch a Finals’ spot for the first time in four seasons.

It was a slow grind for the Hawks as after a slow start which saw them trail by 14 points at quarter time, and three at half time, to lead by eight points at three quarter time, and finally run out 21 point winners – 15.11.101 to 12.8.80.  Nobody kicked more than 2 goals with Rock, Barker, Dixon and Bowyer all reaching that number.  Two of those four, Barker and Bowyer also got the 3 and 2 Brownlow votes, while other good players were Tallis, Woods and Chick.  After the game first-year coach Peter Schwab commented that “the one area where we need to improve on is using the ball that little bit better”.



Lance Franklin now needs one more goal to reach the 250 mark.  If he scores that goal this week he will also move into outright second place on the goals in consecutive games list for Hawthorn.  He currently shares second with Peter Hudson with goals in 61 consecutive games, behind Jason Dunstall with 72.

Hudson kicked goals in 126 of his 129 games, in sequences of 42, 61, 12 and 11.  Dunstall recorded at least one goal in 254 of his 269 games.  His longest sequence of scoring goals was 72 games (1987-90), followed by 44 (1990-92).  The only break between those two sequences was Round 9, 1990, when he went off in the first quarter, having suffered a fractured skull.

Franklin kicked goals in 15 of his first 23 games in 2005 and the first half of 2006, before the current sequence started in Round 12, 2006.  His 61 goal-producing games are out of a possible 63 that the club has played since then.



2009 has become the 11th season when Hawthorn has recorded its first win for the season in Round 3.  Which raises the question, in the scenario when Hawthorn has lost in the opening two games and won the third, what has been the result in Round 4?  The answer to date is six wins (1944, 1952, 1963, 1977, 1979 and 1985) and four defeats (1951, 1973, 2000 and 2002).



The date of this Saturday’s game, 18 April, has not been a happy one for the Hawks. Hawthorn only success on it came in the opening round of 1964 when under new coach, Graham Arthur, the Hawks recorded a comfortable 24 point win over South Melbourne at the Lakeside Oval, with the highlight being 8 goals from John Peck. The Tasmanian Phil Garwood and Bob Vagg from Echuca were debutants that day. 

Hawthorn’s first appearance on 18 April was in 1953 and saw a 49 loss away to Geelong.  It was followed by another Round 1 defeat in 1959 and, since the sole success there have been defeats in 1970, 1992, 1998 and, on a Sunday, in 2004, making a total of one win and six losses. 

There were no matches on the date prior to 1953 as the season usually started at least a week later in that era, while the 22 year gap between 1970 and 1992 was because the Saturdays when there might have been games in 1981 and 1987 fell at Easter, on the Hawks were fixtured on the Mondays – producing an upset win in the former and a shock loss in the latter.



Hawthorn has played 83 times in Round 4 (having a bye in 1991).  The team has had 36 wins, 45 losses and two draws (in 1939 and 1996).   Round 4 is the only round in which Hawthorn has won in all four seasons in which Alastair Clarkson has been coach.

Hawthorn took longer to win in Round 4 than in any other round. It was not until 1941 that the club tasted success after 15 losses and one draw. The Hawks won eight consecutive Round 4 games from 1974 to 1981.



No Hawthorn player has got more than 6 goals against Port Adelaide, that tally being achieved by Aaron Lord in the first game between the two clubs in 1997, by Trent Croad in 2000 and by Lance Franklin last season.  The record for Round 4 is the 9 goals booted by Michael Moncrieff at Waverley Park against South Melbourne in 1979.