This Saturday, Hawthorn will be hoping to improve on a poor home record against Port Adelaide. 

The Hawks have won just four of 11 home games since the Power joined the AFL in 1997. At the MCG, the Hawks have won two out of 6, the wins being recorded in 2000, by 21 points, and in Round 11 last season, by 11 points.



Even after the victory in Adelaide in Round 7 this season, in all games, the Hawks trail Port 8-16, the Club’s lowest winning percentage against any opponent. 

Hawthorn has never bettered the score of 18.16.124 it recorded in its first ever home game against Port Adelaide at Waverley in 1997. In contrast, Port kicked a massive 29.14.188 when beating Hawthorn by 117 points in 2005.



40 years ago, in Round 21 1971, the ladder-leading Hawks took part in a massive game as they travelled to second-placed Collingwood. An incredible crowd of 41,312 crammed into Victoria Park, smashing the record for the previous biggest attendance for the fixture of 32,741 recorded in 1966. It ranks seventh on the all-time list of Victoria Park crowds.

Despite being on top Hawthorn could hardly enter the game with too much confidence.  Since entering the League in 1925, Hawthorn had made the short geographic hop, but large cultural one, across the Yarra to Victoria Park 38 times, and come away with the points on just three occasions (in 1960, 1963 and 1964).

The first half could scarcely have been more even as scores were level at quarter time and the Hawks were ahead by just two points at half-time. Hawthorn then produced a stunning third term adding 6.11 to 2.0, an amazing 17 scoring shots to two, before cruising home to win by 35 points.

Adding to the spectacle was the clash of the two great full-forwards, Peter Hudson and Peter McKenna, who entering the game having kicked 121 and 120 goals respectively for the season. McKenna booted six to take his tally for the season to 126, but was eclipsed by Hudson whose nine goals took him to 130. Hudson’s forward work was supplemented by Leigh Matthews and Michael Porter who each kicked three goals.

The loss proved extremely costly to Collingwood as it slipped to fourth on the ladder and, in fact, did not win another game for the season, surrendering a 42 point half-time lead to lose to Carlton in Round 22 and then being comfortably beaten by Richmond in the First Semi Final.  Hawthorn did not lose another game.



1971 was just the second season in which there had been a Round 21. First contested the previous year, it has been one of the best rounds for Hawthorn, with 29 wins and only 12 defeats in the past 41 seasons. From 1982 to 1994, Hawthorn won 13 consecutive Round 21 matches. The Hawks have won the last four in the round beating North Melbourne (2006), Western Bulldogs (2007), West Coast (2008), Richmond (2009) and last season thrashed an under-strength Fremantle in Launceston by 116 points.



The biggest win in the 13 year sequence of Round 21 wins from 1982 to 1994 came 25 years ago. In Round 21 1986, Hawthorn recorded a new club record score 35.15.225 in a 135 point annihilation of Geelong at Princes Park. What made the score more remarkable was that Hawthorn only led by three points at half time, before adding 25.7 to 3.7 in the second half. The score recorded that day has only been exceeded once in the Club’s history, by the 36.15.231 against Fitzroy in 1991.

The year before the equivalent fixture had been one of the most controversial in Hawthorn history as an out-of control Mark Jackson sparked wild scenes, most famously the Matthews-Bruns incident. This time, Hawks’ fans could just celebrate and the umpires only had to worry about awarding Brownlow votes. They gave three to Terry Wallace (30 disposals), two to Jason Dunstall (nine goals) and one to Greg Dear.



Port Adelaide is the previous home of four of the 11 players from other AFL clubs who have become Hawks in the seven years of Alastair Clarkson’s coaching. Three of them - Brent Guerra, Stephen Gilham and Stuart Dew - played in the 2008 Premiership team, while Shaun Burgoyne joined last season.



2011 marks the 10th anniversary of Hawthorn’s best-ever win over Port Adelaide.

In the 2001 Semi Final at Football Park, few gave the Hawks a chance but, in a memorable final quarter, the Hawks fought back from 17 points down to win by three points. John Barker and Daniel Harford kicked crucial late goals, while around-the-ground Mark Graham starred, helping to both set-up and save the win. 

Since the current version of the Eight was introduced in 2000, the 2001 Hawks remain one of only two Elimination Final winners to beat a Qualifying Final loser in the second week of the Finals.



The strong likelihood that either Port Adelaide or Gold Coast will take out the wooden spoon this season means that there will now be 12 of the current clubs which have finished on the bottom of the ladder since Hawthorn last did so in 1965. The ten to have already done so (with most recent occasion in brackets) are West Coast (2010), Melbourne (2009), Richmond (2007), Carlton (2006), Western Bulldogs (2003), Fremantle (2001), St Kilda (2000), Collingwood (1999), Brisbane Lions (1998), Sydney (1993) and North Melbourne (1972).

Two small pieces of percentage are all that have stopped Hawthorn being the Victorian club to have secured the wooden spoon least recently. In 1965, Hawthorn finished last, level on 16 points with two other clubs, one of which Fitzroy was ahead by just 1.6 per cent. If the Hawks had finished 11th rather than last, it would mean the Club’s last spoon was in 1953 taking it back beyond Geelong’s last one in 1958.

That would leave just Essendon, whose most recent spoon was way back in 1933, with a better record. However, Essendon went within 7.7 per cent of finishing on the bottom in 2006, when sharing the cellar of the ladder with Carlton on 14 points.



The big guns, Peter Hudson and Jason Dunstall, share the Club’s Round 21 record, with Hudson kicking 9 in 1970 and 1971 and Dunstall the same tally in 1986 and 1989. No Hawthorn player has got more than six goals against Port Adelaide, that tally being achieved by Aaron Lord in the first game between the two clubs in 1997, by Trent Croad in 2000 and by Lance Franklin in 2008.