The Hawthorn record for most consecutive games from debut is held by David O'Halloran who played 74 games from his debut in Round 1, 1976, until injury in the 1978 Second Semi Final saw him miss the 1978 Grand Final. Other Hawthorn players to have reached 50 consecutive games from their Hawks' debut include Harold Albiston, John O'Mahony, Cam McPherson, John Platten and Aaron Lord.
Honourable mentions need also to go to Allan Woodley and Ian Law. Woodley played 109 of a possible 110 games from his debut in Round 1, 1954 until Round 18, 1959, his solitary miss being to represent Victoria in Round 10, 1956. Law would also have reached 100 consecutive games from his debut in Round 12, 1960 if he too had not been called away to play in State games.
Remarkably, this coming Saturday night is the first occasion on which Hawthorn and Carlton have ever been drawn to meet each other in the final round of a home and away season. Not once, in the previous 83 years in which they have played together in the VFL-AFL has this happened.
Another opponent that the Hawks have rarely met at the end of the season is Collingwood, with the only clash being way back in 1942. By way of contrast, Hawthorn has met Geelong 13 times in the final round, followed by Essendon 11 times and Melbourne 10 times.
Jarryd Roughead has become the second Hawk to pass 60 goals for the 2008 season, with the Franklin-Roughead combination thus producing the 8th time in Hawthorn history of two players kicking 60 or more in a season. The previous seven occurrences were in 1976, 1977, 1978, 1982, 1984, 1987 and 1991.
It says something for the quality of the forwards that Hawthorn has had in the past four decades that this tally of eight actually accounts for a third of the 24 instances of this feat in VFL-AFL history. The next best performing clubs are Richmond and St Kilda with three each. On a more sobering note, there are only four times when a club with two 60-plus goalkickers has won the premiership - Hawthorn in 1976, 1978 and 1991 and Richmond in 1980.
This week's game against Carlton will be only the second occasion that Melbourne-based Hawks' fans will have seen Chris Judd take on the brown and gold. The only time that West Coast played in Melbourne in Judd's six years at that club was in Round 14, 2006, a game which saw Judd receive two Brownlow votes in a 10 point Eagles' win.
The winning margin of 71 points against West Coast on Sunday equalled the previous best by Hawthorn against them in Perth recorded in Round 5, 1994.
Hawthorn has played its Round 22 fixture on a Saturday night on two previous occasions and both games were decided by under a goal. In 1996, the 'merger match' saw a thrilling one point win over Melbourne, while in 2001 the Hawks slumped to a two point loss to lowly St Kilda for whom Barry Hall kicked the winning goal.
The 'merger match' in 1996 was the only time when a Hawthorn player has reached 100 goals in the final round of the season, with the 9th of Jason Dunstall's 10 goals bringing up the ton. In 1977, Peter Hudson kicked 7 goals in Round 22 to take him to 99 for the season, reaching the century in the following week's Qualifying Final. Dunstall's other five centuries and Hudson's other four were all reached in early rounds.
By reaching 98, Franklin has kicked the third highest ever tally in a season by a Hawthorn player pushing Michael Moncrieff, who kicked 97 in 1976, back into fourth place.
Hawthorn has won 9 of its past 11 matches against Carlton. The only comparable period of success against Carlton was from 1984 to 1987, when the Hawks beat the Blues in 10 out of 11 meetings, including the record winning sequence of seven. The current sequence of four wins in a row began with a 23 point win (2005), and was followed by 32 and 24 point wins (2006) and a 100 point thrashing in Round 12 last season - 27.18.180 to 12.8.80. In that game, Roughead booted 5 goals (Franklin did not play) and the Brownlow votes went to Hodge, Mitchell and Crawford.
Overall, Hawthorn has won 52 of the 154 matches between the two clubs.
Last year a record Docklands crowd of 53,459 attended the Hawks' match against Carlton. It built on the pattern of the previous three seasons when, despite neither team being finals-bound, the same fixture attracted healthy crowds on each occasion - 47,302 (2004), 49,018 (2005) and 45,102 (2006).
By having already secured a 2007 Finals berth, Hawthorn has maintained its record of rarely clinching a position in the Finals in the final round of the home and away season. In the 27 seasons in which Hawthorn has made the VFL-AFL Finals, Hawthorn has only twice - in 1996 and 2000 - clinched a Finals' spot in the final round. In the other 25 seasons when Hawthorn has made the Finals, a spot has been wrapped up much earlier.
Even in 1996 and 2000, the wins were not enough by themselves to guarantee a Finals spot - the Hawks had to wait for other matches later in the weekend to know for sure that they were in. In both instances, it was Richmond losing which ultimately delivered September action for Hawthorn.
Final round heartache has been a more common phenomenon for Hawthorn. In 1960, 1964, 1969, 1981 and 2002 Hawthorn won, but still missed out due to not winning by a big enough margin or because other results denied it a place in the Finals. In 1943 and 1972 Hawthorn lost, when a win would have been enough to make it. 1943 was particularly heartbreaking as the Hawks lost by a solitary point, to North Melbourne at Arden Street. To make things even worse, in the final quarter, Hawthorn kicked 1.8 (and four out of bounds) to North's 2.0. A draw would have been enough to see Hawthorn make its first ever Finals' appearance but, despite Tommy Lahiff's injunctions to rush a behind, his team-mates kept trying to kick a winning goal.
Round 22 was first contested in 1970 and, in the 38 seasons since, Hawthorn has won 24 and lost 14.
Both Peter Hudson and Jason Dunstall regularly kicked large tallies of goals in Round 22. Hudson kicked 11 in 1970, 10 in 1971 and 7 in 1977, while Dunstall contributed 10 in 1988, 11 in 1989, 12 in 1992 (not the final round), 10 in 1993 and 10 in 1996. His 10 in 1996 is the last occasion that a Hawthorn player has reached 10 in any round. The 12 season gap without a 10 is the longest since the 23 year period from 1945 to 1967.
Hawthorn's great goal-kickers never managed big bags against Carlton. Peter Hudson, Leigh Matthews and Jason Dunstall all had a top score of 7 goals against the Blues - in 1968, 1978 and 1989 respectively. The best individual tallies for Hawthorn against the Blues are 9 by Peter Knights in 1985 and 8 by Garry Young (in a losing side) in 1959.
