Jordan Lewis’ 44 disposals against West Coast equaled the Hawthorn record for most disposals in a game.
Prior to Sunday, only two other Hawks, Terry Wallace and Anthony Condon, had collected 44 disposals in a game. Wallace did so against Melbourne at Waverley in 1983, while Condon reached that tally against Carlton at Princes Park in 1991.
Since accurate disposal record began being recorded fifty years ago, other Hawthorn to have racked up 40 or more disposals in a game include Leigh Matthews, Robert Dipierdomenico, Richard Loveridge, John Platten, Darrin Pritchard, Shane Crawford, Sam Mitchell and Luke Hodge. However, as last Sunday showed, having a player with 40 or more disposals does not guarantee a win, with almost half the tallies in Hawthorn history being in losing teams.
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This week Hawthorn has the opportunity to win every home game in a season for just the second time in club history. The only other season when the Hawks won every home game was 1988. Victory will also create Hawthorn’s second longest streak of home wins, going past 11 in 2010-11 and behind only a run of 21 in 1987-89. Since part way through the 2010 season, the Hawks have won 47 of 52 home games with losses only to Geelong (3 times), Sydney (2012) and Richmond (2013).
If the current differential of 5 between Hawthorn’s 10-0 home record and 5-5 away record in 2014 remains in place until the end of the season it will be the biggest since 1958. In the 18-game 1958 season, Hawthorn had a 7-2 home record and a 2-7 away one.
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Jarryd Roughead is closing in on 7th place on the club’s career goalkicking chart. His 5 against Melbourne in Round 20 took him to 421, just 6 goals behind the current 7th place holder, Dermott Brereton’s 427 goals in the brown and gold.
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Hawthorn has played Geelong 154 times, winning 68, losing 85 and playing one draw in 1963. Both club’s longest winning run against the other is 11, with the Hawks establishing their best sequence from 1985 to 1990, while Geelong’s was from 2009 to 2013.
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Round 22 was first contested in 1970 and, in the 44 seasons since, Hawthorn has won 29 and lost 15. In the Clarkson era, Hawthorn holds a 6-3 lead in Round 22 games, including wins in the past 4 seasons, versus Collingwood (2010), Carlton (2011), Sydney (2012) and North Melbourne (2013). Only in 1991, 1992, 1994, 2011, 2012 and 2013 has a Round 22 been played and not been the final round.
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10 years ago, in Round 22 2004, Hawthorn played Geelong at Kardinia Park in the final game under caretaker Donald McDonald. The Hawks had an outstanding first quarter getting away to a 15 point lead. Unfortunately, that was the end of the good news as Hawthorn failed to score in the second term and fell further behind in the second half to lose 17.21.123 to 9.4.58. Nathan Thompson was the only multiple goalkicker for the Hawks with 2, while Lance Picioane was the leading possession getter with 22 disposals.
Hawthorn managed to avoid the wooden spoon by just one per cent but change was in the air. A new coach was to be appointed; there were to be three picks in the top seven in the draft; and just four years later the bleak 2004 season seemed a distant memory as the Hawks were back on top celebrating a Premiership. There were six players from that final game of 2004 who went onto beat Geelong in the final game of 2008 – Chance Bateman, Campbell Brown, Trent Croad, Luke Hodge, Sam Mitchell and Mark Williams.
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30 years ago, in 1984, Hawthorn also played Geelong in Round 22 and this time it was Geelong which had a scoreless quarter. There was also a very different final result as Hawthorn won by 69 points – 25.14.164 to 14.11.95, a loss which put Geelong out of the Five.
On a warm, sunny day at Waverley, the Hawks flew out of the blocks kicking 8.2 in the opening quarter, but were then outscored on the second term. However, any doubt about the eventual outcome was removed when Hawthorn won the third quarter 7.7 to 0.0 before cruising home in the last term. Leigh Matthews kicked 7 goals and Colin Robertson 4, while Rod Lester-Smith kicked an unlikely 3, following his opponents up from the half back flank. The list of best players included those three, plus Richard Loveridge, Ken Judge and Russell Morris.
It was a day that was also notable for Gary Buckenara playing his first senior game of the season, after recovering from the knee injury which had put him out of action early in the previous season’s Grand Final. It also turned out to be the final game for champion full-back Kelvin Moore, who celebrated the occasion by kicking a goal. It was fortunate that he was given this game for while at the time it was regarded as his 301st, a subsequent revision of how state games on the same day as League games were treated meant that it became his 300th.
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Jason Dunstall holds the individual goal-kicking record against Geelong kicking 12 goals in Round 1 of both 1990 and 1992. Both Peter Hudson and Dunstall regularly kicked large tallies of goals in Round 22. Hudson kicked 11 in 1970, 10 in 1971 and 7 in 1977, while Dunstall contributed 10 in 1988, 11 in 1989, 12 in 1992, 10 in 1993 and 10 in 1996.
