Fortunately, things have improved since the Club’s first game at the ground which was on 26 June, 1926 and watched by a crowd of 7,514. In that Round 9 encounter Hawthorn kicked what remains the Club’s lowest VFL-AFL score of 1.7.13 and suffered what remains the Club’s biggest losing margin, 141 points, as Melbourne scored 21.28.154. It is only a minor consolation that Melbourne did go on to win the Premiership in 1926.
Having lost its first ten matches at the ground, Hawthorn broke through for a win in Round 2 1938, beating Melbourne by 19 points. Since that win things have continued to improve with the club having won 132, lost 116 and drawn one of the 249 games to date at the MCG. Hawthorn also has a positive record in Finals at the MCG, 23-16, and in Grand Finals, 9-5.
The MCG also delivered the Hawks greatest winning margin, 160 points in 1992 against this week’s opponent, Essendon, a match which also produced the Club’s record MCG score, 32.24.216 (which is the Club’s third highest at any venue).
The MCG rates second in the grounds on which Hawthorn has played, behind Glenferrie (443), but ahead of Princes Park (230) and Waverley Park (211).
The match played 50 years ago this round has claims to the status of the most memorable Hawthorn win in a home and away match. After thirty five years of failure, in Round 13 1960 the club finally managed its first ever victory at Collingwood and did so, in the most dramatic of fashions, by one point, with John Peck kicking the winning goal after the siren.
In 1940, Hawthorn had won away to Carlton and Richmond, leaving Collingwood as the only remaining unconquered territory. However, the Victoria Park hoodoo was to drag on for a further, extremely painful, twenty years. In both 1958 and 1959, Hawthorn had come close to winning but, in contrasting games, surrendered a four goal three quarter time lead one year and then, the next, fought back from a 31 point quarter time deficit to go down by a solitary point.
John Kennedy had taken over from Jack Hale as Hawthorn coach for the 1960 season and it took until Round 6 for the new coach to taste victory. Having lost the first five, the team then squared the ledger by winning the next five, before losing again in rounds 11 and 12. This left them in eighth spot on the ladder, two games out of the Four, as they prepared for the trip to Victoria Park. Collingwood, in the Four and with history on their side, were firm favourites with bookmakers at 4/6 and favoured by the majority of tipsters. In the Sporting Globe, the only critic who tipped Hawthorn was the ever loyal Kevin Coghlan.
Hawthorn’s hopes were not helped by having several players missing through injury including John Winneke, John Fisher and Maurie Young (who had fractured his jaw the previous week), while Ron Nalder was serving the second match of a two week suspension.
However, on the positive side of the ledger was the presence in the side of Ian Law, who after years of being courted, had finally shifted to Hawthorn from the Amateurs. He had made his debut the previous week, in Hawthorn’s 34 point loss to Essendon.
Kicking with the wind to the Yarra Falls end, Hawthorn had the better of the opening quarter, managing to keep Collingwood from crossing the half forward line until the 20 minute mark of the term. By the same token, the Hawks were having trouble applying scoreboard pressure as Graham Arthur kicked two behinds, plus one out of bounds. Garry Young kicked accurately, after marking a Morton Browne miskick on his chest, while Peck goaled after a free.
The game became a war of attrition with “full blooded clashes” all over the ground and by the third quarter the local crowd were becoming too involved as first a glass and then a beer can sailed over the fence. Collingwood leveled the scores at 4.9 each, during the third quarter, but then goals to Law and Kevin Connell gave Hawthorn a handy 15 point lead at the final change.
It did not look like it was enough when the Magpies, attacking with the breeze, hit the front late in the term. As the clock ticked into time on, Collingwood maintained a five point lead. Hawthorn was battling desperately to get a goal and had the ball constantly on the forward line, without being able to break through. Phil Hay and Peck both had long shots marked in the goal square by Collingwood defenders. The final passage of play for the match saw Arthur attempting to pass to a pocket. Initially, the move did not come off, but then Edwards brought the ball back to Ian Mort, who marked on the half forward flank. Too far out to score, he played on quickly and his kick was marked on the chest by Peck, three yards in front of his opponent.
At this point, the siren sounded. It did not faze Peck, who calmly steered the winning goal through into both the wind and the abuse of the home crowd. It was Hawthorn’s only goal of the quarter, but it was enough. Peck remains one of only three Hawks to win a game with a goal after the siren. In their wildest imagination, Hawthorn supporters would not have dreamt that the inaugural win at Victoria Park would have come in such a dramatic manner. No wonder the press reported that the Hawthorn rooms were full of jubilant supporters.
In The Age, Percy Beames praised Hawthorn’s “determination, courage, pace and better combination” and summed up that they “were the better side all day”. In the same paper, Bruce Welch commented that Brendan Edwards had made better use of his kicks than usual and continued that “it was the dash and penetration of Edwards, backed up by the determined ruck play from Peck, Elward and Cooper that continually put Collingwood on the defensive”. Others in the best players were Kaine, Arthur and Mort.
This inaugural victory at Victoria Park presaged a seismic shift in the balance of football power. By 1960, Collingwood had won 13 premierships to Hawthorn’s none. In the ensuing five decades, Collingwood has added only one more, while Hawthorn won ten. Saturday, 23 July, 1960 was arguably the day that changed football history.
There will be a special function with players from this famous team to commemorate the occasion close to the date anniversary next month, to which members of Glenferrie Gold, the Life Patrons of the Hawks Museum will also be invited.
Anyone interested in joining the Glenferrie Gold ranks, or becoming a Friend of the Hawks Museum, should contact the museum at hawksmuseum@hawthornfc.com.au or by phone on 03 9535 3075.
Two interesting items arising from last Saturday’s game against Adelaide. Firstly, the Hawthorn score of 19.10.124 was the highest Hawthorn has ever recorded at Aurora Stadium, beating the previous record of 17.15.117 recorded against Port Adelaide in 2008.
Perhaps, more historically significant was the fact that Hawthorn wore white shorts in a home game, for what was probably the first time in the Club’s history.
Hawthorn and Essendon have met on 151 occasions with the Hawks winning 56 and losing 95. Essendon has won the past three encounters, in Rounds 7 and 22 of last season, and Round 6 this year. However, prior to that, Hawthorn had won six in a row versus Essendon, equalling the Club record of consecutive wins against the Bombers, originally set in 1987-89.
Hawthorn has played 85 matches in Round 13 for 36 wins, 48 defeats and one draw (in 1926). It has been a poor round in recent seasons with only one win in the past six seasons. At least the one win in that time was a memorable one by eight points over Collingwood, in a Sunday twilight fixture, played in front of 50,248 at Docklands in 2007. In 2008, the Hawks lost to North Melbourne in Launceston by 27 points in Round 13, while last season saw a 20 point defeat by West Coast at Subiaco.
Leading individual goals records by Hawthorn players against Essendon are 12 by Jason Dunstall in 1992, 11 by Leigh Matthews in 1973 and 10 by Michael Moncrieff in 1972. While it is 13 years since a Hawthorn player kicked 10 goals in a game, the last three bags of nine have been against Essendon - by Jason Dunstall in 1998 and Lance Franklin in both 2007 and 2008.
The Round 13 individual goal-kicking record for Hawthorn is nine, held jointly by Peter Hudson (v Fitzroy in 1971) and Jason Dunstall (v Geelong in 1988), and followed by bags of eight from Peter Knights (1972), Mike Moncrieff (1980) and Simon Minton-Connell (1995).
