The only previous instance of Hawthorn reaching a score of 100 in ten or more successive games was in 1982 when Hawthorn reached the century in 11 consecutive games from Round 14 to the First Semi Final.
A victory against Gold Coast on Sunday will create Hawthorn’s second best sequence of commencing results against a new opponent.
The only club which Hawthorn beat on more consecutive occasions from the first match was Brisbane which the Hawks beat on four consecutive occasions, before suffering a shock defeat at Carrara in the two clubs’ fifth meeting.
Apart from the two Queensland clubs, the only other opponent against which Hawthorn had a debut winning sequence of more than one against was Fremantle with two. Other clubs which the Hawks commenced against with a single win were Footscray and Port Adelaide, while the Hawks are obviously also a chance to extend their current sequence of one versus GWS.
Hawthorn had differing margins in the two games against Gold Coast in 2011. At Aurora Stadium in Round 13, the Hawks cruised away to a 71 point win (with the only downside being the reporting of Lance Franklin) but, in Round 24 at Carrara, with several senior players rested, the Hawks snuck home by 9 points, after trailing by 11 points at half-time.
Hawthorn has now kicked four scores of 150 or above this season, the most the club has recorded in a season since 1991.
This also means that Hawthorn has now recorded 11 scores of 150 and above since last conceding one, back in Round 13 2005 against Port Adelaide, contributing to an outstanding ratio of 104 such scores recorded by the Hawks, compared to just 46 conceded.
Sunday’s win against Port Adelaide was the third time this season Hawthorn has had 13 or more individual goal-kickers in a game, already having had 14 versus GWS in Round 15 and 13 against Adelaide in Round 3. In no previous season has Hawthorn had more than one occurrence of this and, in fact, before this season, there had only been seven instances of it in club history.
The Hawks had 16 individual goal-kickers against St Kilda in Round 14 2000, equalling the VFL-AFL record set by Essendon in 1988 and subsequently also equalled by West Coast in 2005. Last season the Hawks had 15 goal-kickers in the 165 point win against Port Adelaide and thus the 14 against GWS was the third highest in club history.
Last Sunday was just the fourth occasion since their drafting at the end of 2004 that Hawthorn has taken the field without both Lance Franklin and Jarryd Roughead.
The Hawks lost on the first occasion against Essendon in Round 22 2009 but has won the next three. These were against Essendon in Round 14 last season; Gold Coast in Round 24 last season and Port Adelaide last Sunday.
Hawthorn continued its good record in individual 200th games with its victory in Luke Hodge’s 200th on Sunday. Hodge was the 27th Hawthorn player to reach 200 games and the milestone games have now produced 19 wins and only 8 defeats. Certainly the most memorable 200th game was Don Scott playing his as the winning captain in the 1976 Grand Final.
First contested in 1970, Round 21 has been one of the best rounds for Hawthorn, with 30 wins and only 12 defeats in the past 42 seasons. From 1982 to 1994, Hawthorn won 13 consecutive Round 21 matches.
The Hawks have won the last six in the round beating North Melbourne (2006), Western Bulldogs (2007), West Coast (2008), Richmond (2009), Fremantle (2010) and Port Adelaide (2011). The margins in these six games have been healthy too being 22, 84, 71, 42, 116 and culminating last season with a club record winning margin of 165 versus Port Adelaide.
20 years ago, in Round 21 1992, Hawthorn backed up its massive win against Essendon in Round 20 with a solid 19 point win against Collingwood. A Waverley Park crowd of 53,369 saw 7th placed Hawthorn 11.16.82 defeat 3rd placed Collingwood 8.15.63. Paul Hudson kicked 6 goals and Anthony Condon had 28 disposals.
30 years ago, in Round 21 1982, Hawthorn survived a last quarter fight back to beat Melbourne by 11 points. The 2nd placed Hawks led by 43 points at the final change against the 9th placed Demons, but in a performance which brought back bad memories of their most recent loss to Footscray in Round 13, conceded seven unanswered goals to fall behind by a point. Late goals to Michael Tuck and Michael Moncrieff saved the day. Rodney Eade was best-on-ground. A number of incidents during the game also attracted media attention.
Both 10 years and 40 years ago this round, Hawthorn suffered major blows to its Finals hopes.
In 2002, the Hawks entered Round 21 half a game out of the Eight, but failed to get back in after a 15 point Friday night loss to North Melbourne. Nick Holland kicked 5 goals, while first year midfielder Nick Ries was the leading possession-getter with 24 disposals.
In 1972, the first year of the Final Five, Hawthorn entered Round 21 a game inside the Five in 4th position. However, the Hawks were thrashed by top team Carlton at Princes Park by 68 points and had to watch Blues’ full-forward Greg Kennedy kick 12 goals in just his 18th League game. To secure their Finals’ position, the Hawks would now have to beat St Kilda in Round 22.
The big guns, Peter Hudson and Jason Dunstall, share Hawthorn’s Round 21 individual goal-kicking record, with Hudson kicking 9 in 1970 and 1971 and Dunstall the same tally in 1986 and 1989. Last season Lance Franklin kicked 8 in this round.
Luke Bruest holds the record for the most goals in a game against Gold Coast kicking 5 at Carrara in Round 24 last season. He was also the equal leading goal-kicker in the Round 13 encounter, sharing his tally of 4 with Shane Savage.
