Why does Hawthorn’s game against Adelaide in Round 21, 2000 have a unique place in the modern history of Hawthorn? 

Footy Flashbacks posed that question last week.  The answer is that, since the elevation of 22 individuals to the status of Premiership players last September, Round 21, 2000 is the only game since Round 18, 1954 when a Hawthorn team took the field without a previous, or subsequent, Hawthorn Premiership player. 

There were three subsequent Premiership players on the list in 2000, but Trent Croad missed that Round 21 game through suspension, while both Shane Crawford (calf) and Chance Bateman (ankle) were injured.  Remarkably, both Crawford and Bateman were originally named in the team, but were late withdrawals.

The absence of any Hawthorn premiership players did not stop the Hawks beating Adelaide by 31 points at the MCG – 15.8.98 to 9.13.67.  Nick Holland was the star for the Hawks with 7 goals.  He secured the 3 Brownlow votes, while Daniel Chick got 2 and Jade Rawlings 1.  It should be pointed out that the team did include Premiership players with other clubs – Paul Salmon (Essendon 1985 & 1993) and Anthony Rock (North 1996).

For the record, the Round 21, 2000 team was:

B
TallisHayGraham
HBBowyerRawlingsChick
CPicioaneHarford
B. Young
HFBarlowHollandDixon
F
Rock
ThompsonBarker
Foll
SalmonSalmonWoods
Inter Treleven
SmithJohnson
 Lekkas  

In some ways, it is surprising there were not more games in this “non-Premiership player” category around the turn of the century especially as, by 1998, the only 1991 Premiership player still appearing for the Hawks was Jason Dunstall and he only managed 13 games in his final season. 

Shane Crawford provided a crucial link between the two Premiership eras, playing every game in 1999, 2002 and 2003.  The addition of Trent Croad to the list helped between 1998 and 2001 and, by the time Croad left for his spell at Fremantle in 2002, other names like Osborne, Williams, Campbell, Hodge, Mitchell and Brown were beginning to appear in Hawthorn teams.

For those wondering about 1954, the only future Premiership player that year was John Peck and he missed Round 18.  The 1961 team began to take shape in 1955, when Graham Arthur played every game in his debut season.



The Hawks and the Bulldogs are level in their head-to-head battle at 73-73 with 2 draws (in 1996 and 1999).  

Given that Hawthorn leads the Bulldogs by 10 premierships to one, and has appeared in 15 Grand Finals to two, the level head-to head is quite striking.  It is explained by the fact while both teams struggled in their early years after joining the League, Footscray were significantly better than Hawthorn.  Then, in the 1970s and 1980s, when the Hawks were strong, an upset loss to the Bulldogs was always on the cards.



The Bulldogs have won five of the past eight meetings between the two clubs, in each case the first match of the past five seasons.  The three times the clubs met for a second time in the season in Round 19, 2004, in Round 21, 2007 and in last season’s Qualifying Final  the Hawks were victorious.



Forty years ago this round, in Round 14, 1969, Hawthorn scored an exciting and high-scoring seven point win over Essendon at Glenferrie – 17.19.121 to 16.18.114.  Peter Hudson booted 5 and Lance Morton 4.



Hawthorn scored big wins in this round both 25 and 20 years ago. 

In 1984, after an upset loss to Melbourne in Round 13, the Hawks journeyed to Moorabbin and proceeded to slaughter the hapless St Kilda – 19.20.134 to 4.6.30.  Leigh Matthews and Dermott Brereton each contributed 5 goals, one more than the whole opposing team.

In Round 14, 1989 Hawthorn played West Coast at Princes Park. 

A few weeks earlier, the Hawks had beaten the Eagles by just 5 points in Perth, a win marred by a season ending injury to Paul Abbott.  In the week between Rounds 13 and 14, there had been a State Game which had also claimed Tony Hall for the season so, while safely settled in top spot on the ladder, not everything was going the Hawks way.  In this game, an inaccurate Hawthorn booted 19.27.141 to beat West Coast 6.14.50.  Jason Dunstall booted 7 goals and Dermott Brereton 3.



Hawthorn has played 82 matches in Round 14 (having had byes in 1993 and 1994), with a record of 37 wins and 45 losses.  The Hawks won four consecutive Round 14 games from 2000 to 2003, lost four from 2004 to 2007, before returning to the winner’s list with a 57 point victory against West Coast at the MCG last season.



The highest individual goal tally kicked by a Hawthorn player against the Bulldogs is 14 by Jason Dunstall in Round 19, 1996 at Waverley.  The Round 14 individual goal-kicking record for Hawthorn is 12, kicked by Peter Hudson against Footscray at Glenferrie in 1968.



Anyone interested in becoming a Friend of the Hawks Museum should email hawksmuseum@hawthornfc.com.au , or ask how to become a friend when visiting the Hawks Museum at Waverley.  Also when at the Museum make sure you purchase your copy of Mud, Muscle and Blood: The Story of the 1957 Hawks the first Hawthorn team to contest a Finals Series.