And if the Hawks can record a win on Saturday, they will become the 5th most successful club in VFL-AFL history, behind only Carlton (16), Essendon (16), Collingwood (15) and Melbourne (12), all of which had a 28 season head-start entering the League in 1897, rather than 1925.
It is interesting to reflect that at the end of 1960, when Hawthorn was still without a Flag, Collingwood had already won 13, Melbourne 11, Essendon 10 and Carlton 8.
Sydney will become the ninth different team Hawthorn has played in a Grand Final, joining Essendon (3), Geelong (3), North Melbourne (3), Carlton (2), Footscray (1), St Kilda (1), Melbourne (1) and West Coast (1).
To date, 131 players have represented Hawthorn in Grand Finals, a number that will increase to more than 140 this week. Hawthorn’s excellent strike rate of 10 wins from 15 Grand Final appearances means that 118 of the 131 are Premiership players. This leaves an unlucky 13 who have appeared in Grand Finals without tasting success. The unluckiest of all was Rod Lester-Smith, who is the only one of the 13 to have appeared in two losing teams (1984 and 1985), without also playing in a winning Grand Final team.
Sam Mitchell has moved to third place on the all-time Hawthorn Brownlow Medal votes list. His 26 votes in the 2012 Medal has taken his career tally to 154, behind only Leigh Matthews (202) and Shane Crawford (159), passing John Platten (143) and Jason Dunstall (129) along the way.
This tally also puts Mitchell into the top 20 in the VFL-AFL, moving to equal 18th with Greg Williams and Dick Reynolds. Only five of the top 20 have not won the Medal, Hawthorn providing two of them - Matthews and Mitchell.
The late withdrawal of Luke Hodge last Saturday has reduced to three the number of Hawks to have played in every Final under Alastair Clarkson - Lance Franklin, Sam Mitchell and Brad Sewell.
Tom Murphy has now played in 7 of the 11 Clarkson-era finals, equalling the club record for most finals without appearing in a Grand Final. Others to have played in 7 Hawthorn finals without a Grand Final appearance are Ben Dixon, Mark Graham and Joel Smith.
The Preliminary Final was the eighth time Hawthorn has won a final by 6 points or fewer, which compares favourably with just 4 losses by 6 points or fewer.
Adelaide joins Geelong as a team the Hawks have beaten twice by 6 points or fewer in finals, while the others on the list are St Kilda, Fitzroy, Melbourne and Port Adelaide.
The 5-point win against the Crows also broke a recent sequence of losses in games decided by 6 points or fewer. Prior to Saturday, the Hawks last win in such a game was against Collingwood in Round 22 2010.
The win took the Hawthorn’s record in finals to 44 wins and 27 losses.
Shaun Burgoyne will be seeking to become the second Hawthorn player to play in a Premiership having previously played in one at another club, after Stuart Dew became the first in 2008. Both previously played in Port Adelaide’s 2004 Premiership.
In the 46 years between the arrival of two Premiership players in 1950 (Herb ‘Stumpy’ Turner from Carlton and Gordon Bowman from Melbourne) and Paul Salmon’s Hawthorn debut in 1996, the Hawks did not import a single Premiership player. The only player to have even played in a grand final elsewhere and then appear in one for Hawthorn was Stuart Trott, who played in St Kilda’s 1971 loss to Hawthorn and then for the Hawks in their 1975 defeat by North Melbourne.
There have been two players who played in a Hawthorn flag and then in another elsewhere - Barry Rowlings (Hawthorn 1976 and Richmond 1980) and Darren Jarman (Hawthorn 1991 and Adelaide 1997-98).
Josh Kennedy will become just the third former Hawthorn player to play against the Hawks in a grand final. The only previous examples were David Flintoff and Gary Ablett.
Flintoff played one game for the Hawks in 1983 before shifting to Melbourne, where his 31 games included the 1988 Grand Final, while Ablett played 6 games for Hawthorn in 1982 before his lengthy Geelong career which included the 1989 Grand Final.
For the first time Hawthorn will go into a grand final without a single player in his first year of VFL-AFL football. If you look at first year playing for Hawthorn, then the 2012 team has one player in that category, Jack Gunston.
Hawthorn has played South Melbourne/Sydney 151 times, recording 83 wins, 66 defeats and two draws. Each club had periods where they dominated the other with South putting together sequences of 15 wins (1929-37) and 13 wins (1944-51), while the Hawks’ best sequences were 13 from 1971 to 1977, followed by 11 from 1981 to 1986.
In the mid 2000s, the Swans won six in a row, before Hawthorn stopped the run at the MCG in 2008. In 2009, 2010 and 2012 the victories were shared, while in 2011 beat the Swans twice, at the SCG in Round 9, and backed it up with a 36 point Semi Final triumph at the MCG.
That 2011 finals’ success took Hawthorn to a 3-1 lead against Sydney in finals with the other wins coming in a 1987 Waverley Qualifying Final and a 2001 Docklands Elimination Final, while the loss was in a 1996 Qualifying Final at the SCG.
Hawthorn did not play the Swans at the MCG until 2001 but has played a home game against them there now in 9 of the past 12 seasons and last season’s semi final there means the two clubs have now met 10 times at the venue. The Hawks have won 6 (including the last 4) and lost 4.
The most goals kicked by a Hawthorn player in a grand final is the 8 by Dermott Brereton in the78 point loss to Essendon in 1985. Jason Dunstall kicked 7 in 1988, plus 6 in 1986 and 1991.
Others to kick 6 were Leigh Matthews in 1983 and Paul Abbott in 1988.
The most goals in a player’s first grand final is the 4 kicked by Bob Keddie in 1971 and Dean Anderson in 1989.
