Hawthorn’s 71 per cent winning percentage against Fremantle is its best against any opponent.
The two teams have met 21 times since the Dockers joined the competition in 1995, with the Hawks holding a 15-6 advantage. Hawthorn has won the past two encounters, both at Subiaco, in 2008 and 2009.
If you are a Melbourne-based Hawks fan and you think you have not seen your team play Fremantle for a long-time, you are right. Hawthorn last played the Dockers in Melbourne at Docklands in Round 18, 2001. The two teams have never played at the MCG. Hawthorn last four home games against Fremantle have all been played in Launceston. Hawthorn has won them all, most recently in Round 1 2006.
Jarryd Roughead has moved into equal 20th on Hawthorn’s career goal-kicking list. His 228 career goals have him level with John Platten. The next players up the list are Ted Pool (230) and Peter Crimmins (231).
Playing on the same day as a Federal Election is something Hawthorn has done five days previously. Omen bettors might like to know that in the past Hawthorn wins have coincided with Labor wins, while Hawthorn defeats have meant Coalition wins. Although perhaps a word of caution, the pattern does not hold for State Elections.
The first time Hawthorn played on a Federal Election day was in the middle of the Second World War, on 21 August 1943. That election saw the Labor Government, under Prime Minister John Curtin, re-elected in a landslide. Meanwhile, Hawthorn continued its best season to date in the VFL, and kept its Finals hopes alive, with a 32 point win over South Melbourne, with Lou Salvas and Ken Slater each kicking three goals. The crowd of 15,000 at Glenferrie was easily the biggest of the round, far exceeding the crowds that went to Carlton, Collingwood and Richmond home games.
The next occasion when they coincided was on 28 April 1951. On that day Hawthorn suffered its 22nd consecutive loss, a sequence stretching back to late in the 1949 season. However, it was by the reasonably respectable margin of 25 points to reigning premiers Essendon at Glenferrie. Peter Hancock kicked three goals, while Pat Cash Snr made his debut. In the day’s Federal Election, Prime Minister Robert Menzies’ Liberals were re-elected. Hawthorn’s losing sequence ended the following round; Menzies winning run continued for many years.
Menzies next election win was on 29 May 1954 and on that day the Hawks lost again, this time by just 9 points to eventual premiers, Footscray. Hawthorn was in the Four at this stage of the season and so a big crowd of 26,000 packed into Glenferrie. They saw boom recruit, Clayton ‘Candles’ Thompson kick three goals.
It was another 20 years before a Federal Election and football coincided again. It was on 18 May 1974, a day best remembered in football history for the infamous brawl at Windy Hill between Essendon and Richmond, while in politics Gough Whitlam’s Labor Government hung on to power in a close election. The day also saw Hawthorn in the novel role as the home team in a game against Carlton at Princes Park. The Hawks made themselves right at home cruising to a 13.22.100 to 8.12.60 win. Leigh Matthews kicked five and Michael Moncrieff 4 and the win consolidated Hawthorn’s position in the five.
The 1980s and early 1990s were dominated by the Hawks and Bob Hawke - the former winning five premierships, the latter four elections. On 11 July 1987 they tasted success on the same day with Hawthorn thrashing Footscray by 97 points at Princes Park and Hawke leading Labor to a comfortable victory. At the football, Russell Morris kicked six and Dermott Brereton four, while Michael Tuck received the three Brownlow votes.
Round 21, which was first contested in 1970, has been one of the best rounds for Hawthorn, with 28 wins and only 12 defeats in the past 40 seasons. From 1982 to 1994, Hawthorn won 13 consecutive Round 21 matches. The Hawks have won the last four in the round beating North Melbourne (2006), the Bulldogs (2007), West Coast (2008) and Richmond last season.
The game played 10 years ago this round, in Round 21, 2000, has a unique place in modern Hawthorn history. It is the only game since Round 18, 1954 when a Hawthorn team took the field without a previous, or subsequent, Hawthorn Premiership player.
There were three subsequent Premiership players on the list in 2000, but Trent Croad missed that Round 21 game through suspension, while both Shane Crawford (calf) and Chance Bateman (ankle) were injured. Remarkably, both Crawford and Bateman were originally named in the team, but were late withdrawals.
The absence of any Hawthorn premiership players did not stop the Hawks beating Adelaide by 31 points at the MCG - 15.8.98 to 9.13.67. Nick Holland was the star for the Hawks with seven goals. He secured the 3 Brownlow votes, while Daniel Chick got 2 and Jade Rawlings 1. It should be pointed out that the team did include Premiership players with other clubs - Paul Salmon (Essendon 1985 and 1993) and Anthony Rock (North 1996).
In some ways, it is surprising there were not more games in this “non-premiership player” category around the turn of the century especially as, by 1998, the only 1991 Premiership player still appearing for the Hawks was Jason Dunstall and he only managed 13 games in his final season.
Crawford provided a crucial link between the two premiership eras, playing every game in 1999, 2002 and 2003. The addition of Croad to the list helped between 1998 and 2001 and, by the time Croad left for his spell at Fremantle in 2002, other names like Osborne, Williams, Campbell, Hodge, Mitchell and Brown were beginning to appear in Hawthorn teams.
For those wondering about 1954, the only future premiership player that year was John Peck and he missed Round 18. The 1961 team began to take shape in 1955, when Graham Arthur played every game in his debut season.
Hawthorn’s second highest ever score was recorded in Round 21 - 35.15.225 to Geelong’s 13.12.90, at Princes Park in 1986. What made the score more remarkable was that Hawthorn only led by 3 points at half time, before adding 25.7 to 3.7 in the second half.
The most goals by a Hawthorn player against Fremantle are the eight by Mark Williams in Round 1 2006, in Launceston. The big guns, Peter Hudson and Jason Dunstall, share the Club’s Round 21 record, with Hudson kicking nine in 1970 and 1971 and Dunstall the same tally in 1986 and 1989.
