Franklin kicked 7 in last season’s Elimination Final against Adelaide and 8 against the Bulldogs in this year’s Qualifying Final. Matthews kicked 7 in both the 1974 First Semi Final and the 1976 Qualifying Final.
Players to have kicked 7 or more once are Peter Hudson (7, 1971 SSF), Michael Moncrieff (8, 1978 QF), Dermott Brereton (8, 1985 GF) and Jason Dunstall (7, 1988 GF).
Franklin’s 18 goals in his first three Finals appearances is also a club record. The only other player who comes close is Peter Hudson who managed 16 – 7, 3 and 6, very similar to Franklin’s 7, 3 and 8. Others with productive starts were Jason Dunstall with 10 (5, 1 and 4) and John Peck 8 (0, 4 and 4). Leigh Matthews managed just one goal in his first three Finals (0, 1 and 0), although the one he did kick was a crucial one early in the last quarter of the 1971 Grand Final. He also then kicked 7 in his fourth Final.
Overall, the player with the most goals for Hawthorn in Finals is Dunstall with 78, followed by Matthews 72, Brereton 53, Buckenara 36 and Moncrieff 31.
This Saturday night will see Hawthorn contest its tenth Preliminary Final. The previous nine included eight under Final Four/Fives systems and one under a Final Eight. These games have produced four wins and five defeats. However, on the five previous occasions when, like this year, the Hawks were the higher placed team heading into the game, the club has won four (1963, 1985, 1986 and 1987) and lost only once (1977).
Hawthorn and St Kilda have played two previous Finals, the 1971 Second Semi Final and Grand Final.
While everyone remembers Hawthorn’s comeback in the Grand Final, after being 20 points behind at three quarter time, the Second Semi also featured a narrow Hawthorn win, by two points. However, this time it was the Hawks hanging on, after leading by 31 points at half time and 33 points at the final change. The final score was 12.18.90 to 12.16.88. Peter Hudson kicked 7 and Alan Martello 3, while best players included Bruce Stevenson, David Parkin, Don Scott, Hudson, Bob Keddie, Kelvin Moore and Des Meagher.
The big disappointment of the game was the injury to Peter Knights which saw him miss the Grand Final, having played every previous game for the season.
That 1971 Second Semi produced a crowd of 99,822, the largest at a Hawthorn Final, not including Grand Finals. The only other non-GF Hawthorn Final to produce a crowd of over 90,000 was the 91,471 who attended the 1963 Second Semi versus Geelong. There have been six other attendances over 80,000 the most recent being the 86,468 who attended the 2001 Preliminary Final against Essendon.
The 31 players Hawthorn has used so far in 2008 is the lowest number since 1989. Only twice, have the Hawks played fewer than 31, using 30 in both 1961 and 1987. Previous seasons when Hawthorn has used 31 players were 1936, 1948, 1971, 1977, 1986 and 1989.
Robert Campbell played his 100th game against the Bulldogs, the 115th player to reach the milestone at the club.
The Hawks have won five of the last six by margins of more than 50 points, only interrupted by the Round 20 loss to Richmond. The wins were by 58, 69, 71, 78 and 51.
The last time Hawthorn had such a sequence was in 1986 from Round 19 to the Preliminary Final. The winning margins then were even bigger – 98, 72, 135, 70 and 56. The intervening loss on that occasion was to Carlton in the Second Semi by 28 points (very similar to the 29 point losing margin in Round 20 this year).
Hawthorn has had off the second week of a Finals’ Series, in which it is still alive, for the first time since 1957. Of course, under the Final Five and Final Six models which operated from 1972 to 1993, all remaining teams participated in the second week. Under the Final Four, the winner of the First Semi Final had the second week off, while waiting to meet the loser of the Second Semi Final and the only year when Hawthorn was in that situation was after its very first Finals’ appearance in 1957.
Hawthorn will improve its final ladder position for the ninth time in the past eleven seasons. The only two years that have seen the Hawks go backwards were 2002 (4th to 10th) and 2004 (9th to 15th).
Collingwood has now completed 50 years with just one Premiership, a half century that has already seen Hawthorn win nine. When Collingwood won its 13th Flag in 1958 they had won 55 of 58 games against Hawthorn. Since then, the Hawks hold a 51 to 38 advantage.
Hawthorn holds a narrow 73 to 70 (with one draw) in the head-to-head battle against St Kilda, although the Saints have won six of the last seven meetings between the two clubs.
Peter Hudson holds the record for the highest number of goals by a Hawthorn player against St Kilda, kicking 12 in 1971.
