When Luke Hodge plays his 100^th game this Friday night he will become the first Hawthorn player since 1971 to reach 100 games without playing in a final.

Going into the 1971 finals series, three players - Bob Keddie (113), Des Meagher (107) and Peter Crimmins (105) - had all reached 100 games without appearing in a final, while Peter Hudson actually played his 100^th game in the Second Semi Final.  The only members of the 1971 team with previous finals experience were David Parkin and Ken Beck.

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Hawthorn has had only one century score kicked against it in the first half of a home and away season for the first time since 1975. 

The only opponents to pass 100 so far in 2007 were the Bulldogs (16.14.110) in Round 5, while the next highest were Essendon and Fremantle, which both managed scores of 96 (15.6 and 14.12 respectively).

Back in 1975, Carlton (16.15.111) in Round 6 was the only team to record a century against the Hawks in the first half of the season and, in doing so, inflicted the only defeat of the first half of the year.

The 2007 Hawks are just ahead of the 1975 Hawks in total “points against”, having conceded 865 compared to 872.  However, the 1975 team were significantly more productive in attack, scoring nine centuries to the current team’s three, and having a “points for” of 1323 to 977.

The 1964 Hawthorn team is the only one not to have a century kicked against them for an entire season.  The 1957 team managed this for a complete home and away season, before conceding 22.12.144 in the Preliminary Final.

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Last Saturday’s crowd of 48,398 was the second largest ever for a Hawthorn versus South Melbourne / Sydney game.  The only bigger one was the 72,130 that attended the final match at Waverley Park in Round 22, 1999.  

Saturday’s crowd exceeded the attendance for the only final played in Victoria between the two clubs, in 1987, for which the attendance was 47,752. The next biggest crowds for clashes between the two clubs were 39,763 (SCG, R19 1986), 37,576 (Waverley R5, 1997), 37,276 (Waverley R4, 1979) and 37,010 (SCG, Qualifying Final, 1996).

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This season is the fourth consecutive one where Hawthorn has played away to Carlton at Telstra Dome on a Friday night.  In the past three seasons, the games have all attracted healthy crowds - 47,302, 49,018 and 45,102.

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This season Hawthorn only has one Friday night fixture, the lowest number since also just having a solitary one in 2001.  The highest number of Friday night fixtures the Club has played in a season was seven in 2002.

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Last Saturday against Sydney, Joel Smith became the second player this season (after Trent Croad) to reach 150 Hawthorn games.  Smith is the 49^th player to reach the mark.  The honour of being the 50^th should belong to Richie Vandenberg, currently on 138, as for the moment he is the only player between 100 and 150 - at least until Luke Hodge reaches 100 on Friday night and Sam Mitchell gets to 100 in two games time.

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Hawthorn has won eight of its past 10 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.  Overall Hawthorn has won exactly a third of the meetings between the two clubs – 51 out of 153.

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Hawthorn has won 33 and lost 49 of its 82 Round 12 matches.  The Club has had reasonable success in this round in recent seasons with four wins in the past six Round 12 matches, including last year’s 41 point victory against Richmond in Launceston.

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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.

Jason Dunstall twice booted 11 goals in Round 12 both times outside Victoria – at Carrara in 1987 and at the SCG in 1994.

1957 – Fifty Years On

Round 10, 1957

Saturday, 22 June, 1957 at Junction Oval

St Kilda 10.15.75 d. Hawthorn 8.11.59 

Having had an unchanged starting XVIII for the previous four matches, Hawthorn was forced to make changes for their Round 10 clash at the Junction Oval.  Graham Arthur and Alf Hughes were away with the Victorian team commencing a two week tour to Adelaide and Perth, while a third change was required when Don Gent was a late withdrawal with a knee injury 

Leading by 17 points at half time, the Hawks struggled in the third term, despite having the wind.  They added only 1.3 to 3.1 an effort described by one paper as “a match losing effort with the wind”, with the only goal for the term being “a belated, somewhat lucky, goal by Cyril Collard as the quarter ended”.

The seven point three quarter time lead did not appear sufficient and two St Kilda goals in the opening two minutes of the final term made a Hawthorn win even less likely.

The Hawks never looked like getting back in the game despite the valiant efforts of John Kennedy in the ruck.  Kennedy had a cut eye which required a couple of stitches after the game

One newspaper commented that “the Hawks failed because of over-emphasis on individual effort, weakness in the rucks and the forward line”.

Player of the week

Geoff Howells was one of the better players for Hawthorn in the Round 10 loss to St Kilda, being the only multiple goal-kicker with 3 goals.

Howells played 19 of the 20 matches in 1957, the first half of the season at centre half forward and the latter games at centre half back, scoring all nine of his goals for the season by Round 12.

Speaking from his Frankston home, Howells recalls that his best game for the year was probably the Round 4 victory over Melbourne when his two third quarter goals were crucial to achieving the win in a low-scoring game.  He believes that was the game when he achieved his solitary Brownlow vote.  

Geoff Howells was very much a local Hawthorn boy growing up in Riversdale Road, just around the corner from Glenferrie Road, and on his occasional trips to Glenferrie Oval he particularly remembers seeing Jim Bohan play.  He is listed as being recruited from the Hawthorn Colts, but came to them from Caulfield Tech.

Howells played a total of 57 games for the club kicking 27 goals in seven seasons between 1954 and 1960.  He only managed one game in 1960 finding the combination of travel from Crib Point, where he was teaching, and the strenuous new John Kennedy training regime a bit too onerous.  However, he continued playing football for many years for clubs including Hastings, Morwell and Sorrento.  He actually played his final game for Karingal Seconds at the remarkable age of 54.

Howells is a keen golfer, but is not a huge fan of the modern style of football.  He and his wife also do a lot of traveling around Australia and when Footy Flashbacks spoke to him he was hoping to catch up with one of his former teammates on his next trip interstate.  He retains fond memories of his Hawthorn career and in particular of making the Finals in 1957.    

Goals:                          Howells 3, Collard, Woodley, O’Brien, Waters, Yeoman.