• Ten things we learned from the Grand Final
• Analysis: How the Hawks unravelled the Eagles' web
• Every Hawks premiership player rated

The man behind the three-peat

THERE are many who can rightfully claim to have helped engineer Hawthorn's third straight premiership flag, also the fourth in eight years and the club's 13th overall.

The Hawks have been blessed with a remarkable group of players, coaches and administrators since the averted merger with Melbourne in 1996 but particularly over the last 10 years.

But one of them in particular needs to be singled out in the aftermath of what was probably the greatest day in the history of the Hawks. 

And that man is former president Ian Dicker.

Not only did he steer the club towards financial stability in the period following the failed merger when nobody wanted to do business with Hawthorn. But when the AFL announced the closure of Waverley in 1999 and tried to steer the Hawks towards the new stadium at the Docklands, it was Dicker who dug his heels in and insisted that the club would instead relocate to the MCG because it offered a better deal for present and future members.

"They would only guarantee us 10,000 free seats for members at Docklands," Dicker recalled on Saturday evening amid the buzz of the victorious Hawk rooms, where he wore a grin from ear to ear.

"The MCG offered us 40,000 seats and there was also the factor that the MCG is where they play the Grand Final."

Ian Dicker celebrates the 2008 Grand Final win over Geelong. Picture: AFL Media

That last statement is critically important. Since the Docklands Stadium opened in 2000, the Essendon team of that year is the only team from that ground to win a premiership. And the MCG was the Bombers' home ground until that year. The other Victorian-based teams to win the flag have either been based out of Simonds Stadium (Geelong) or the MCG (Collingwood and Hawthorn).

Two phrases kept emerging during the week out of Hawthorn. The marketing team referred to "Our House" when referring to the MCG and it even made an appearance on the pre-match banner.

But the footy guys kept referring to their "home deck" when referring to the MCG. After returning from the qualifying final loss to West Coast with their wings clipped, the Hawks immediately clicked into gear when back at the MCG the next week for the semi-final against Adelaide, enjoying the extra width for their precise kicking game.

It gave the Hawks confidence that if they did get another crack at the Eagles in the Grand Final, the comforts of home would be an enormous help.

NBA superstar Michael Jordan used to say every time there seemed to be a legitimate challenger to his great Chicago Bulls teams: "They still gotta come through Chicago." 

Fashioning that statement, Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson said afterwards on Saturday of the MCG: "It's where we play our best footy and fortunately this is where the Grand Final is played each year. That suits us just fine."

The moment the Hawks lifted the cup! #ohwhatafeeling #AFLGF http://t.co/jwdNjLKvKD

— #AFLGF (@AFL) October 3, 2015

CLARKO AMONG THE GREATS: Most premierships as coach

What will the historians have to say?

The historians have today, tomorrow, the summer and the rest of time to put Hawthorn's win on Saturday into some sort of context.

The two burning questions are how this flag compares to those of 2013 and 2014 and whether the hat-trick Hawks are better than the Allan Jeans-Alan Joyce teams that made seven straight Grand Finals between 1983 and 1989 and won four of them. 

What most at Hawthorn say without hesitation is that this year's flag was the hardest won of the three. The Lance Franklin saga hung over the 2013 flag and there were a heap of injuries plus the Clarkson illness that featured last year.

But this year the distractions were more complicated and in one case particularly tragic. In addition to their tardy 4-4 start to the year, there were the Luke Hodge and Jordan Lewis suspensions, Jarryd Roughead's melanoma scare, Clarkson's physical altercation with the mouthy Port Adelaide supporter, Hodge's drink-driving episode, the late-season departure of key assistant Brendan Bolton to Carlton and most dramatically, the motor vehicle death of Cooper Ratten, the son of assistant coach Brett Ratten.

"This time around there was tragedy and death and it really affected the playing group and that's what made it tough this year," Clarkson said.

Football manager Chris Fagan added: "There have been little dramas along the way that have made things tougher and have tested their resilience.

"One thing this group has become good at is holding up under pressure because we have had a few years of practice at dealing with tough times."

Ohhhh! The crowd roars in appreciation of a Luke Hodge cracker! #ohwhatafeeling #AFLGF http://t.co/wlesuI6BDj

— #AFLGF (@AFL) October 3, 2015

As for the comparison between the eras, it says here that Clarkson's Hawks are the greatest ever.

The Hawthorn teams from the first golden era were replete with champion players, but the Hawks were fortuitously gifted champions such as Leigh Matthews, Peter Knights, Michael Tuck, Dermott Brereton, Gary Ayres, Chris Mew and Robert DiPierdomenico purely and simply because of recruiting zones of the time and others, such as Jason Dunstall, John Platten and Gary Buckenara, enticed from interstate because of the club's success and deep pockets.

It took equalisation measures such as the national draft and the salary cap to bring clubs like the Hawks back to the field.

And for a time they did.

But in this era of football equalisation footy clubs are not supposed to win three flags on the trot as the Hawks have done, or four in eight years if you include the 2008 triumph. Premiership windows are supposed to be much tighter than that.

According to the AFL's blueprint, Hawthorn should have fallen off the cliff by now. During this golden era, the Hawks did not benefit from a rich and exclusive recruiting zone, take their place at the front of the queue for the best emerging talent in the country or have an extra million in their salary cap. 

Instead, a tough, driven and incredibly talented playing group, moulded by a brilliant and innovative coach and led by a shrewd administration, have defied convention and delivered Hawthorn’s 72,000 members and hundreds of thousands of supporters more joy than they could have ever wished for.

Only a few years ago, it would have been sacrilegious to suggest the Hawks of Matthews, Tuck, Knights, Brereton, Dunstall, Ayres and DiPierdomenico were not the greatest brown and gold group ever.

But Sam Mitchell, Hodge, Jarryd Roughead, Lewis, Grant Birchall, Cyril Rioli, Shaun Burgoyne and their teammates just might have gone past them. 


Let the discussion begin.

Lucky 13 - Hawthorn's VFL/AFL premierships