Jack Gunston is poised to become just the fourth player to kick 50 goals in Finals for Hawthorn.

Gunston’s two goals against Fremantle took him to 49 goals in Finals, trailing only Jason Dunstall (78), Leigh Matthews (72) and Dermott Brereton (53).

Gunston has kicked at least one goal in 19 of his 21 Finals, with his biggest haul being five in last year’s Semi Final against Adelaide.

Hawthorn has not previously played Brisbane Lions in a Final but did play two Finals against one of its antecedent clubs, Fitzroy. The first was the 1983 Qualifying Final when the Hawks survived a late scare to win a high-scoring game by four points.

Then, 40 years ago, in the 1986 Preliminary Final, it was an early scare for the Hawks as the Lions kicked the opening three goals of the match. However, Hawthorn quickly recovered, gaining a five-point lead by quarter-time, which was extended to 20 and 39 at the next two breaks, before finishing in victory by 56 points – 16.14.110 to 7.12.54.

Jason Dunstall kicked five goals, and John Platten booted four, with Platten having 24 disposals and vying for best-on-ground honours with Terry Wallace. Others to feature in best player lists were Dunstall, Greg Dear, Robert DiPierdomenico and Richard Loveridge.

This week, Dylan Moore will become the 74^th individual to play 150 games for Hawthorn, but he will be just the seventh to reach the milestone in a Final. The previous six were Leigh Matthews, Michael Moncrieff, Ian Paton, Terry Wallace, Gary Buckenara and Grant Birchall.

A positive omen is that all six celebrated the milestone with a win.

To date, Hawthorn has qualified for 19 Grand Finals, doing so 10 times by winning Second Semi Finals under the Final Four, Five and Six systems, and nine times by winning Preliminary Finals, including winning five of eight under the Final Eight system, introduced in 1994, which involves two Preliminary Finals each season. Overall, Hawthorn has a 9-7 record in its 16 Preliminary Finals and a 57-35 record in its 92 VFL-AFL Finals.

Hawthorn and Brisbane have played 58 times, with the Hawks winning 35 and losing 23.

Since 2010, there have been significant winning sequences for both teams. Hawthorn won eight consecutive encounters against Brisbane from 2010 to 2017; lost all four meetings in 2018-19; won five more games against Brisbane from 2020 to 2024; before being defeated by the Lions twice last season and in Round 22 this season.

Viewed another way, it means that between 2010 and 2025, Brisbane won all six games in the three seasons (2018, 2019 and 2025) when the teams met twice, whereas the Hawks won all 13 games in the 13 seasons when the teams only met once. Hopefully this sequence ends on Saturday!

This Saturday will be just the third time in its VFL-AFL history that Hawthorn has played a game on 19 September. The other occasions were the 1987 Preliminary Final, when Hawthorn came from 22 points down at three quarter-time to defeat Melbourne by two points via a Gary Buckenara goal after the siren, and last year’s Preliminary Final against Geelong.

The score of 5.10.40 to which Hawthorn restricted Fremantle in the Qualifying Final was the lowest ever score recorded against Hawthorn in a Final. The previous record low against the Hawks in a Final was Carlton’s 6.9.45 in the 1988 Second Semi at Waverley. There have been two other scores below 50 against Hawthorn in Finals, both of which were 6.12.48, recorded by Carlton in 1957 and North Melbourne in 1983.

Max Beattie got to play in a Final in just his third AFL game, one fewer than other recent early-career Finals players, Ryan Burton (2016) and Conor Nash (2018), who both played Finals in their fourth games. However, it is not a club record, as two Hawks, Michael Cooke (1975) and Dermott Brereton (1982), made their debuts in Finals.

One recent milestone that Flashbacks did not cover at the time was that in Round 23 Blake Hardwick reached 200 games in the number 15 guernsey. Hardwick began his career by playing 20 games in number 37 in 2016-17. Since Round 1 2018, he has worn number 15 and played an incredible 202 of a possible 205 games in that period.

Hardwick is the third individual to play 200 games in number 15 after Kelvin Moore and Luke Hodge. Moore played 298 of his 300 career games in number 15, after two games in number 48, whereas Hodge wore number 15 for his complete 305-game Hawthorn career.

This Friday night, Aine McDonagh will become the second individual to play 50 games for Hawthorn in the AFLW, following Tamara Smith last Saturday, with McDonagh also becoming the first person to play 50 consecutive games after debuting in Round 4 of the team’s first season in 2022.

The Hawthorn AFLW team will be playing its fourth match at Cazaly’s Stadium in Cairns. The Hawks lost to Richmond there in 2023 but have recorded victories in the past two seasons against Melbourne (2024) and St Kilda (2025).

This Sunday, Box Hill plays in its seventh Grand Final since the alignment with Hawthorn began in 2000. The Hawks will be looking to add a fourth Flag to the Premierships won in 2001, 2013 and 2018. Two members of the 2018 Flag-winning team, Dylan Moore and Mitch Lewis, remain on the Hawthorn list, while two others, Marc Pittonet and Changkuoth Jiath, continue at other AFL clubs.

Jason Dunstall holds the club’s individual goal-kicking record against Brisbane, with 11 goals in the first-ever match between the two clubs at Carrara in 1987.

Jarryd Roughead’s six goals in the 2014 Preliminary Final against Port Adelaide were a new Hawthorn Preliminary Final record, beating the five recorded by Jason Dunstall (1986), Gary Buckenara (1987) and Mark Williams (2008).