1961 Premiership Captain Graham Arthur turns 75 this Thursday. 

Arthur was born on 9 June, 1936 and recruited from Sandhurst.

He played 232 games, captaining the Club in a record 153 of them. He won the Best and Fairest in his debut season of 1955 and followed up with wins in 1958 and 1962. 

Hawthorn has won premierships in the years Arthur turned 25 (1961) and 50 (1986) - let’s hope the trend continues in the year he turns 75.



Only ten members of the Hawthorn team which beat Fremantle on Sunday were 2008 premiership players. This is the first time since the Grand Final that fewer than half the team have been premiership players.

On four previous occasions, a post-2008 Hawthorn team has included eleven premiership players - in Round 22, 2009 and in the three games (Rounds 8-10) prior to Sunday.



Hawthorn’s recovery from 18 points down at three quarter time to beat Fremantle by 22 points was reminiscent of a game in Round 18 1982 when the Hawks came from 19 points down at the final change to beat Essendon by 18 points at Windy Hill. 

More than the result, the game is best remembered for Leigh Matthews breaking a point post.



Hawthorn has lost its last five games against Geelong, its longest losing sequence against the Cats since the 1960s. From Round 18 1963 to Round 3 1967, the Hawks lost eight consecutive games against Geelong and, unlike the current sequence, many were by big margins. 

The sequence of eight was actually part of a longer sequence of eleven games in which Hawthorn did not beat the Cats as before the eight losses there was a draw in Round 7 1963. The run of eight defeats is the equal record together with another from 1949 to 1953. On the other side of the ledger, Hawthorn’s longest winning run against Geelong is 11 set between 1985 and 1990.

In total, Hawthorn and Geelong have played each other 146 times, with Geelong holding a 11 win lead in the head-to-head 78 to 67 (with one draw). At the MCG, the record is 8-4 in Geelong’s favour.



Jordan Lisle is one of a number of players who have made their senior debut in their third season on the list after drafting. There have also been three players who did not debut until their fourth season after drafting - Matthew Young, David Loats and Beau Muston.

Lisle is also the first player from both Blackburn and Carey Grammar for several decades. The most recent ex-Blackburn player prior to Lisle was Ian Scrimshaw (1974-75) and the most recent Carey one was Geoff Angus (1967-73), although Michael Cooke came from Old Carey (1975).



Kyle Cheney is the 16th former Melbourne player to wear the brown and gold, and the second to debut this season after Cameron Bruce in Round 1. Before Bruce, there had not been one since Roger Ellingworth who played a solitary game for the Hawks in 1986.  Prior to him there was Michael Byrne’s who made a stunning eight goal debut for Hawthorn in 1982. The list of ex-Melbourne players to come to Hawthorn includes three who had played in Premiership teams at Melbourne - Bert Chadwick, Jack O’Keefe and Gordon Bowman.



In Round 12 1961, Hawthorn gained revenge for its shock Round 1 defeat when it scored a solid 16 point win over South Melbourne in Round 12 in what was described as “a drab, slogging match on a rain-sodden ground”. The final score was 9.11.65 to South 7.7.49.

The result stayed in the balance until quite late in the final quarter when an Ian Law goal, his third, put the margin beyond two goals. Law headed the best players list which also included Edwards, Arthur, Mort, Youren, McArthur and Young.



In Round 12 1971, top team Hawthorn scored a comfortable 33 point win against third bottom team, Essendon - 14.20.104 to 11.5.71.  Peter Hudson kicked six goals and Alan Martello two.



20 years ago, in Round 12 1991, Hawthorn lost its second consecutive game going down to Geelong at Princes Park by 40 points - 13.18.96 to 20.16.136. Dermott Brereton played a lone hand for the Hawks, kicking eight goals. The loss left Hawthorn with a 6-5 record after 11 games and outside the six, with few giving the Hawks much chance of mounting a premiership challenge. However, Hawthorn was about to produce a remarkable second half of the season.



In recent seasons, fixtures between Geelong and Hawthorn have been played solely at the MCG. The last time Hawthorn journeyed to Kardinia Park, Geelong, was in Round 3 2006, the match resulting in a stunning 52 point upset win for the Hawks. 

Hawthorn led by seven points at half-time before slipping away to a 21 point three quarter time lead and then blowing the Cats away to win 15.11.101 to 7.7.49.  The Brownlow votes went to Hodge, Mitchell and Vandenberg - now the last three Hawks’ captains.



While, in recent years, Geelong has had the better of the close games between the Hawks and Cats, the boot was on the other foot between 1987 and 2000. In that 14 year period, the Hawks had a remarkable ten wins by less than two goals in games against the Cats. Overall, in the 25 games in those years, the Hawks won 20 and Geelong just five (none in close games) of the matches between the two clubs.



Hawthorn has had reasonable success in this round in recent seasons with seven wins in the past ten Round 12 matches. There were three wins in a row from 2006 to 2008 over Richmond by 41 points (2006), Carlton by 100 (2007) and against Adelaide by four points at Football Park (2008). After a blip in Round 12, 2009, when the Hawks managed only one goal in the second half as they lost by 42 points to Brisbane Lions at Aurora Stadium, the Hawks returned to the winning list with a 47 point win against Adelaide at Aurora last season. Overall, Hawthorn has won 36 and lost 50 of its 86 Round 12 matches. 



The individual goal-kicking record for a Hawthorn player versus Geelong is 12 by Jason Dunstall in 1990 and 1992, while Wally Culpitt kicked 10 in 1944.

Dunstall also holds the individual goal-kicking record for Hawthorn in Round 12 - booting 11 against the Brisbane Bears in the first ever match between the two clubs at Carrara in 1987, later equalling his record for the round against Sydney at the SCG in 1994.