Hawthorn won 13.16.94 to 13.14.92, in a game of wildly fluctuating fortunes, before a crowd of 48,099 at Waverley Park. The Hawks lead by 30 points at half time, but then trailed by 10 points at three quarter time. Jason Dunstall booted 6 goals and was one of the best players along with the Dear brothers, Greg and Paul, Robert Dipierdomenico, Dean Anderson and Paul Cooper.
That 1990 win is one of many examples when Hawthorn has beaten Collingwood in seasons when the Magpies have gone on to make the Grand Final. Since 1958, the Hawks have beaten Collingwood at least once in 9 of the 11 seasons that Collingwood has made the Grand Final.
In Collingwood’s sole premiership year of the modern era, 1990, the brown and gold triumphed twice - by 2 points (as above) and by 83 points in Round 20. There was also at least one Hawthorn win versus Collingwood’s in their losing GF years of 1960, 1964, 1970, 1977, 1980, 1981, 2002 and 2003. Post-1958, the only seasons where Collingwood made a Grand Final, without losing to the Hawks along the way, were 1966 and 1979.
Overall, in Collingwood’s 11 post-1958 Grand Final seasons the Hawks have won 10 of the two teams’ 19 encounters. In contrast, in the 14 seasons in which Hawthorn has made the Grand Final the two teams have met 25 times, games which produced 21 Hawthorn wins against just 4 for the Magpies (1975, 1978, 1985 and 1989 produced the blemishes).
It has already been a big week for history at Hawthorn with the unveiling of a statue of John Kennedy Snr. at Waverley Park. Read the feature article.
Hawthorn achieved two feats for just the second time in the club’s history last Sunday.
It is just the second time that Hawthorn has won its first six matches of the season. The only previous instance was in 2001 when the Hawks won the opening eight matches.
2008 also joins 1979 as the only two seasons when Hawthorn has recorded century scores in the opening six games. The difference in 1979 was that the Hawks were 3-3, instead of 6-0. The 1979 Hawks lost again in Round 7, by 12 points to Fitzroy at the Junction Oval, and failed to make the century scoring 11.24.90.
That score in Round 7, 1979 is but one of many examples of far worse inaccuracy than the Hawks exhibited in kicking 14.22.106 last Sunday.
After all, Hawthorn did win a Grand Final (in 1976) kicking a very similar 13.22.100 with John Hendrie’s 2.8 being similar to Franklin’s 1.7
A much worse example of Hawthorn inaccuracy came in Round 13 1985 when, at the MCG, Hawthorn 11.31.97 d. Melbourne 12.9.81. Other examples of extreme inaccuracy were 8.26.74 against Essendon in 1935 and 4.24.48 against Fitzroy in 1950, the former being a winning score and the latter a losing one. And, of course, Hawthorn holds the VFL-AFL record for most behinds in a game – 25.41.191 versus St Kilda at Princes Park in 1977.
However, Sunday was the first time Hawthorn has kicked 20 behinds in a game since booting 17.22.124 when beating Essendon in Round 11, 1997.
In recent years, Hawthorn has tended to be the accurate team kicking more goals but losing to a less accurate opponent. It happened twice in 2005 – in Round 3, when Hawthorn 11.9 lost to Essendon 10.17, and again in Round 21, when Hawthorn 21.7 lost to Richmond 20.17.
When Collingwood won its 13th Flag in 1958 they had won 55 of 58 games against Hawthorn. Since then, the Hawks hold a 49 to 38 advantage, plus there is also the significant matter of nine premierships to Collingwood’s one in that period.
The overall record in the 145 matches between the two clubs is Collingwood 93 wins and Hawthorn 52.
The two teams met once in 2007 in a memorable clash at Docklands in Round 13, with the Hawks eventually prevailing by 8 points. Franklin kicked 4 goals and Roughead 3, while Mitchell and Crawford secured Brownlow votes. Prior to that, Hawthorn had lost four consecutive matches against Collingwood, not having beaten them since Round 12, 2003.
There is a remarkable disparity in the number of times that the Hawks have met other teams in Round 7. Of the traditional Victorian teams, Collingwood will join Carlton (1974 and 1980) at two clashes and yet the Hawks played Fitzroy 15 times in this round, and their have been 11 games against Geelong and 9 versus the Bulldogs and Swans.
Clinton Young played his 50th game last Sunday. Young was recruited from Minyip-Murtoa in the Wimmera and while that part of Victoria has not been a prolific source of players for Hawthorn there are a couple of other players from the region who reached at least 50 games.
Two players from Ararat Stuart Stewart (130 games, 1926-35) and Tom Byrne (61 games 1935-39) did so, as did Ken Beck (143 games, 1962-72) from Stawell.
Other players in recent decades to hail from the Wimmera were Peter Chilton from Jeparit and Luke Brennan from Horsham.
One reader has queried whether Cyril Rioli is the first Hawthorn player to appear in winning sides in his first six games. The answer is no as Tim Clarke and Shaun Rehn both made their Hawthorn debuts in Round 1, 2001 and played in all 8 of the sequence of wins at the start of that season. Another example was Jack Cunningham who made his debut in Round 9, 1961, the first of a sequence of 12 wins culminating in the Grand Final, Cunningham’s 7th game.
Cyril Rioli has also become the 25th Hawthorn player to receive a Rising Star nomination. 12 of the 25 are current players, including the first player from the club to be nominated - Shane Crawford.
Crawford was the award’s second ever nominee in Round 2, 1993. Interestingly, the nominees in Rounds 1 and 3, 1993 also ended up in Hawthorn colours – Peter Everitt and Nathan Chapman (and both even wore the same number – no. 1).
The Hawks have not recorded a Round 7 win since 2002. In that year, the Hawks thrashed Geelong by 52 points at the MCG. Since then there have been Round 7 defeats against Kangaroos, Geelong, West Coast, Brisbane Lions and Fremantle. The Hawks won eight consecutive Round 7 matches from 1971 to 1978.
Hawthorn’s overall Round 7 record is 38 wins and 44 losses and one draw. The draw came 45 years ago in 1963, when that year’s eventual Grand Finalists, Hawthorn and Geelong, kicked 9.12.66 apiece.
Round 7 produced the highest individual goal tally by a Hawthorn player ever – 17 by Jason Dunstall against Richmond at Waverley in 1992. The record against Collingwood is also held by Dunstall with 11 in 1989 and 1990, followed by Michael Moncrieff with 10 in 1976.
