This Sunday will be the first time Hawthorn has ever played Fremantle at the MCG. 

Indeed, it is the first time the two teams have met in Melbourne since 2001.



Hawthorn played Fremantle in Melbourne on six occasions between when the Dockers joined the AFL in 1995 and 2001 - four times at Waverley and twice at Docklands. Hawthorn won four of the six, but the two losses stand out as unusually poor efforts, with both seeing big leads surrendered.

At Waverley in Round 17 1997, the Hawks led by 29 points at half time (9.4 to 4.5) with Jade Rawlings having kicked five goals from five kicks. Yet, Hawthorn managed only a measly four behinds in the second half to lose 9.8.62 to 10.11.71. 

Then, four years later, at Docklands in Round 18 2001, Hawthorn again led by 29 points at the long interval (10.5 to 5.6) and again lost - 13.12.90 to 15.16.106. At least in 1997, the teams were in adjoining positions on the ladder (11th and 12th), whereas in 2001 not only were the Hawks third and the Dockers 16th, the visiting team was winless and had recently sacked their coach.

In the past decade, Hawthorn’s five home games against Fremantle have all been at Aurora Stadium and the Hawks have won them all.
 


No current Hawk has ever played against Fremantle in Melbourne, but there are three members of the 2001 Fremantle team, which beat Hawthorn at Docklands, still playing AFL football. Only one of them, Matthew Pavlich, has played for Fremantle for the full intervening decade; one other, Adam McPhee, is now back with the Dockers, while Leigh Brown is now at his third League club.



Last season, Hawthorn made it five out of five in Aurora Stadium games versus Fremantle, with a massive 116 point Round 21 win. Two weeks later, Fremantle turned the tables in the Elimination Final at Subiaco, leaving the head-to-head between the clubs at Hawthorn 16, Fremantle 7.



The largest crowd for a Hawthorn home game versus Fremantle is 39,735 who attended Jason Dunstall’s final game at Waverley in Round 22, 1998. While this week’s attendance may struggle to beat that, it should surpass the second highest Hawthorn home crowd against the Dockers which is 17,212 at Aurora Stadium in 2003, while the third highest was 16,595 at Docklands in 2001.



This round marks the 30th anniversary of Hawthorn’s record attendance at a home and away game. In Round 11, 1981 a ground record crowd of 92,935 packed Waverley Park to see the Hawks beat Collingwood by 46 points - 18.19.127 to 12.9.81. Allan Goad kicked 5, Leigh Matthews four and Norm Goss three.



In the excitement of Lance Franklin reaching 400 career goals against Sydney, it was easy to overlook the fact that Jarryd Roughead reached 250 career goals in the same game. 

Two further goals against the Bulldogs have taken Roughead to 252, just two behind John Hendrie, who is 15th on the all-time Hawthorn list with 254. Beginning the season on 237, Roughead has already gone past Mark Williams (242) and Nick Holland (239) this year.



The fact that Hawthorn had an unchanged team against the Bulldogs last Sunday takes to 12 the number of unchanged Hawthorn teams there have been in the six and a half seasons under the coaching of Alastair Clarkson. This is three more than there were in the nine seasons under the coaching of Allan Jeans.



For the first time in the Club’s history, in Round 11 1961, Hawthorn went into a game against Collingwood as favourites. The Hawks coped with this new status remarkably well and handed out a 54 point thrashing to their long time nemesis - 13.12.90 to 4.12.36.

As so often in 1961, the third quarter proved decisive. Hawthorn slammed on seven goals to the grandstand end, while the hapless Magpies only managed a solitary behind at the Glenferrie Road end. Collingwood tried to upset the Hawks with vigour, but this proved completely counterproductive. Greg Hobbs, summarising the match in The Age, said Collingwood were “reduced to embarrassment point … it had no answer to Hawthorn’s pace, teamwork and backing up … mainly because the Hawthorn players always made the ball their objective”.

John McArthur played the best game of his career as an unpassable centre-half-back, while other good players were Peck, who kicked seven goals, Browne, Winneke, Youren, P. Hay and Arthur.



Round 11, 1971 saw Hawthorn play in the match of the day against Melbourne. The two teams which had finished 8th and 10th the previous season were now occupying the top two positions on the ladder and a crowd of 52,256 turned up on the Queen’s Birthday Monday to see the match.

Hawthorn set up the win with a brilliant 7.1 to 1.5 opening quarter. Melbourne battled away for the next three quarters eventually reducing the Hawks’ winning margin to 20 points - 14.10.94 to 10.14.74. Peter Hudson kicked five, while Peter Crimmins, Kevin Heath and Bruce Stevenson all booted two.

The victory meant Hawthorn reached the half-way mark of the home and away season in first place with a 10-1 record, while Melbourne slipped to fourth at 8-3.  Hawthorn kept its momentum going in the second half of the season, however, Melbourne only managed a further three wins and a draw to finish seventh.



Overall, Round 11 is one of Hawthorn’s worst rounds, with the Club winning just 33 of the 86 games it has played in the round (51 defeats and two draws). In the ten seasons from 1998 to 2007, the Hawks recorded just one win (versus Adelaide in 2003) and one draw (versus Bulldogs in 1999) in the round, but things appear to be trending upwards with wins in the past three seasons.

Oddly, Hawthorn has won its last two Round 11 matches by the appropriate margin of 11 points, with MCG victories against Sydney in 2009 and Port Adelaide in 2010.



The most goals by a Hawthorn player against Fremantle is the tally of eight by Mark Williams in Round 1 2006, in Launceston. The Round 11 individual goal-kicking record is held by Peter Hudson who kicked 13 goals against South Melbourne at Glenferrie in 1969.