Hawthorn’s rise of eight places on the ladder from Round 1 to Round 2 is the biggest single round ladder jump in the Club’s history. The previous biggest rise was six places (10th to 4th) from Round 1 to Round 2, 1989.

Shane Crawford has joined two legends of the Club on the figure of 269 games played. He currently sits in equal sixth position on the games tally with Gary Ayres and Jason Dunstall and will this week move to outright sixth, with no-one between him and Kelvin Moore in fifth place on exactly 300 games.

2007 has become the 18th season in which Hawthorn has lost in Round 1 and then won in Round 2. The previous 17 seasons when this combination of results has occurred has gone on to produce eight wins and nine losses in Round 3. Four of the eight wins came in what ended up being Premiership winning seasons – 1961, 1988, 1989 and 1991.

Round 3 has historically been one of Hawthorn’s better rounds. It is one of four rounds where the Club has recorded 40 wins. In the past ten seasons, the Club has recorded six Round 3 wins, including the memorable 52 point thrashing of Geelong at Geelong last year.

Hawthorn plays the Kangaroos twice in the season for the sixth consecutive year in 2007. In 2002, 2003 and 2006 the results were split, while the Roos won the two matches in both 2004 and 2005. The recent glut of meetings, plus the fact that the two clubs have met 14 in finals, means that the 156 games against North is the most Hawthorn has played against any club. The next highest figure is 153 games against Carlton. North has a bigger gap to their second most frequent opponent, which is Collingwood, whom they have played 145 times.

The overall record between the Hawthorn and the Kangaroos is 84 to 70 (with two draws) in the Hawks’ favour. That lead of 14 is accounted for by the Hawks’ 14 consecutive wins over North from 1985 to 1993.

Hawthorn’s record at Docklands is 15 wins and 19 losses. It was the venue for Hawthorn’s only previous game in Melbourne in the Sunday twilight time slot, a 56 point loss to Geelong in Round 7, 2004. The Hawks did win in a late Sunday timeslot in Round 5, 2000 - versus Port Adelaide at Football Park.

The record individual goal tally against the Kangaroos is 10 held jointly by Alec Albiston (Round 1, 1940) and Jason Dunstall (Round 22, 1988). The record for Round 3 is the 11 kicked by Leigh Matthews (v Ess) in 1973. Michael Moncrieff had a particular liking for Round 3, kicking 10 in both 1974 (v SM) and 1976 (v Coll).

1957 – Fifty years onRound 1, 1957 – Saturday, 20 April, 1957 at Princes ParkHawthorn 15.12.102 d. Carlton 10.6.66The start of the 1957 season brought the game into a new era as for the first time it received television coverage. On this opening day, Easter Saturday, the cameras of channels 2, 7 and 9 were at Victoria Park to broadcast live the final quarter of the Collingwood v Essendon clash.With a similar level of anticipation to the television networks, Hawthorn supporters were hoping that 1957 might produce an inaugural Finals appearance. Of more immediate concern was hoping that a clearance for Len Crane would come through from his 1956 club Wagga in time for him to resume his career in brown and gold in Round 1. It did.

The Club faced a difficult opening assignment playing Carlton at Princes Park. In 32 previous seasons in the VFL, Hawthorn had played Carlton at Princes Park on 29 occasions, visits that had resulted in one win (in 1940) and 28 defeats. In fact, Hawthorn had only managed a total of five wins against the Blues. Given that record, and the fact that Carlton had finished fifth versus the Hawks’ seventh in 1956, it was probably no surprise that nine out of nine Sun tipsters picked Carlton.

Hawthorn began the 1957 season in fine style kicking 3.2 before Carlton scored. The first goal was booted by captain John Kennedy, awarded a free within minutes of the opening bounce. Kennedy had lost the toss, but Carlton had elected to kick into the breeze, a decision they were no doubt ruing when they trailed by 37 points at quarter time. As one report described it, the Hawks were “going in hard and backing each other up well”. Gradually, the Blues got back into the game in the middle two quarters and reduced the deficit to 9 at the final change. However, in a remarkable final term Hawthorn added 4.3, while keeping Carlton scoreless!

One of the most courageous efforts of the day was produced by John O’Mahony who, despite having hurt his shoulder, returned from a flank to the centre to give Hawthorn great drive in the final term. Also to the fore was Roy Simmonds who “played a dashing game breaking up Carlton attacks and starting Hawthorn ones”. Other names mentioned in the best players were O’Brien, Kaine, Collard, Kennedy and Woodley, but there was some disagreement in the newspapers about the identity of Hawthorn’s best players.

However, all agreed that one of them was new full-forward Terry Ingersoll, this week’s 1957 Player in Profile.

The Herald commented that he “moved like a champion with fast leads, high marks and a reasonable degree of accuracy”. He equaled the club record for the most goals by a player making his League debut, set by Johnny Hall in 1938. The record was subsequently also equaled by Dermott Brereton in 1982 and Stephen Lawrence in 1988, but has never been broken. Three of his goals came in the opening term and he had the honour of having Carlton’s highly rated full-back, George Ferry, shifted off him.

What makes the Terry Ingersoll story more remarkable is that not only was he recruited from Sydney club, Western Suburbs, he was a genuine Sydneysider who when first approached to play Aussie Rules at the Burwood Police Boys Club at 13, had never even heard of the game.

In 1956, he had equaled the Sydney competition record with 118 goals for the season, having also kicked 13 goals in a Semi Final in 1955. He had actually come down to Melbourne and kicked 5 goals in a practice match in the 1956 pre-season but, not having secured a clearance, he returned to Sydney. By the 1957 pre-season, he had been in Melbourne for four months satisfying residential qualifications.

Speaking recently from his home on the NSW Central Coast, Ingersoll recalls his opening match as being a “good day” and being struck by the size of the crowd.

What made the story of the day even more remarkable was that it had originally been scheduled as his wedding day. However, following his success in getting selected, the wedding was postponed to the Monday. He flew back to Sydney on the Saturday night, married Noelene Assinus on the Monday and flew back to Melbourne on the Thursday. Their return was a media event, being featured on the back page of that afternoon’s Herald (“New Hawk flies in with bride”) and the following morning’s Sun, which had a photo of the couple’s Essendon Airport arrival juxtaposed, with one of him training at Glenferrie two hours later, watched by his new wife.

Terry and Noelene are still happily married and will be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary on 22 April. They have four children and several grandchildren and while all their children played representative sport, neither of their sons played Australian football. Their eldest son, Col, was born while they were in Melbourne and the family still retains the brown and gold booties and football jumper they received as a gift from the Kennedys.

When featured in the Sporting Globe in March 1957, Ingersoll was working in a Glenferrie Rd furniture business, but hankering to get back to former job as a slaughterman. He achieved his wish, scoring a position with Partington’s Butchers at the Camberwell Market. This entailed 4am starts five days a week, plus a 5am to 11am shift on match days (probably not the standard preparation for modern footballers). He used to jog to work from his home in Goodall St, Auburn. On returning to Sydney he worked as a slaughterman at Homebush, until the works closed to become part of the Olympic site.

Ingersoll has very fond memories of his time at Hawthorn and still follows the club’s fortunes. He found the whole club very friendly and became particularly good mates with John Peck and Brian Falconer. He remembers John Kennedy as the toughest player he has seen in any code of football.Ingersoll was actually one of four debutants in the Hawthorn team, none of whom was to have lengthy careers at the club. Ingersoll and ex-Subiaco rover Cyril Collard played 17 and 13 matches respectively, while it was to be the solitary game for ‘Mick’ Carter and Barry Metcalfe. Metcalfe had the shortest possible Hawthorn career - he was selected on the bench and did not get called into the action.

Unlike most one gamers, Len ‘Mick’ Carter had the opportunity to play more games for the club, but chose not to pursue a League career. A champion player in country football, he won the Murray League medal in 1956, he played well for the Hawks in Round 1 1957.

However, even before the game The Sun had described him as “surely the most reluctant champion ever wooed by League clubs”. By the week following the Carlton game, he had decided to stay in his home town of Strathmerton where he could run his transport business, play football with his mates and enjoy his fishing and duck shooting. When interviewed for an article on Hawthorn’s one-gamers in early 2005, Carter has no regrets about his decision. Operating his business often involved 2.30 a.m. starts and that was incompatible with traveling to Melbourne for football. He had led a successful and fulfilling business and family life. While his football career was curtailed by a broken leg, he was proud of the fact that his two grandsons still played for Strathmerton.

At the time of his “retirement”, Carter was quoted as saying “they are a really great bunch of chaps down at Hawthorn” and “I appreciate everything Hawthorn has done for me”. In 2005, at the age of 70, he recounted that the one game he played for Hawthorn converted him from a childhood Melbourne fan to a lifelong supporter of Hawthorn. Sadly, Carter died in July last year.

Hawthorn 7.4 8.8 11.9 15.12.102
Carlton 1.3 4.5 10.6 10.6.66
Goals: Ingersoll 5, Cooper 3, Kaine 2, O’Brien 2, Kennedy, Edwards, Collard.
Attendance 24,321
Team:
B Hughes Gent Woodley
HB Simmonds Peck Crane
C Edwards O’Mahony Falconer
HF Arthur Howells O’Brien
F Kaine Ingersoll Cooper
Foll Kennedy Carter Collard
Res M. Young Metcalfe
Next week – Round 2, 27 April, 1957, home to Richmond.