Back to Hawthorn Part 1
Allan Jeans returned to Glenferrie in 1989 with one goal in mind: to lead Hawthorn to the first back to back premierships in the club's history. On no fewer than six previous occasions the Hawks had had the opportunity to accomplish this rare feat, but each time they had failed, sometimes quite dismally. In both 1984 and 1987, however, the Hawks had gone to within an ace of gaining back to back flags only to fall at the final hurdle. Jeans was determined not to let history repeat itself and it was with almost fanatical resolve that his team fought its way through to the 1989 play-off to confront Geelong.
The Cats in many respects represented a direct antithesis of all that Hawthorn, under Jeans, stood for; individualistic where the Hawks were totally team-orientated, placing the onus on flair rather than efficiency, capable of almost dazzling feats of artistry and brilliance, they effectively ensured that the 1989 grand final would be billed as a classic confrontation of styles.
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Former Geelong and North Melbourne goalkicking great Doug Wade presents Hawk sharpshooter Jason Dunstall with the 1989 John Coleman Medal, his second in succession. Dunstall won a third Medal in 1992. |
Needless to say, this was an over-simplification: Hawthorn, too, possessed players of undoubted ingenuity and flair, while, as events in the 1989 grand final were quite emphatically to prove, the Cats were by no means incapable of looking after themselves when the going got willing. Indeed, it was the Hawks who came out worse in the physical exchanges, with Dermott Brereton being felled by Mark Yeates at the opening bounce, John Platten leaving the fray at quarter time with concussion, and Michael Tuck, Robert Dipierdomenico, Scott Maginness and Darrin Pritchard all playing on despite sustaining debilitating injuries. The final siren saw Hawthorn, with barely a dozen fit players, clinging to a 6 point lead, after Geelong had kicked 8.5 to 3.5 in the final quarter; Jeans' dream had thus been dramatically fulfilled. If 1988 witnessed the Hawks at their most awesome, 1989 saw them display a level of resilience almost unparalleled not only in their own history, but also in the entire history of the game. Thirty years earlier, the Hawthorn Football Club had been an apparently rudderless ship adrift on a tempestuous sea; following the 1989 grand final there could be absolutely no doubt that the Hawks had become the pre-eminent football force in the land, a state of affairs it was hard to see changing in the immediate future.
Part of the allure of Australian football at the highest level, though, is its unpredictability. The 1990 season, which proved to be Jeans' last as coach, saw the Hawks bow out of the finals at the first hurdle against Melbourne. Twelve months on from perhaps their greatest ever triumph all the talk was of a side which was now past it as a major force. Looking at the squad which fronted up for the 1991 AFL season it was difficult to refute this point of view: skipper Michael Tuck, a veteran of 405 league games, was approaching thirty-eight years of age, while others, like Gary Ayres, Chris Langford, John Platten and Greg Dear had all reached ages when the majority of their best performances could reasonably be expected to be behind them.
Oblivious of this, the Hawk machine clicked into gear right away to put in one of the most impressive pre-seasons by any side in recent times. Wins by 79 points over Footscray, 49 points over Brisbane, and a staggering 102 points against Essendon set Hawthorn up for a Fosters Cup Final showdown with North Melbourne in which the brown and golds proved much too experienced and powerful, winning by 49 points, 14.19 (103) to 7.12 (54). It was Hawthorn's fourth Fosters Cup win in seven seasons, and a record seventh night series triumph in all.
Once the 'real' stuff began, however, the wheels threatened to come off the Hawk steamroller altogether, a mammoth 14 goal loss to the fledgling Adelaide Crows in round 1 being followed by a series of stuttering performances which saw the side on 6-5 and out of the finals placings at the half way mark. Critics were claiming the Hawks had been found out: "too old, too slow" was the catch cry, and even as they built up a sequence of eight successive wins during the second half of the season they were rarely convincing. However, achievements during the weekly grind of the home and away season are ultimately of little consequence except in so far as they establish a platform for finals participation. Ultimately, it is premierships which count, and as the 1991 play-offs approached it was noticeable that the Hawks were starting to show signs of a return to their spectacular pre-season form.
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Hawthorn warmed up for the finals with a 98 point drubbing of Carlton in the penultimate round, followed by an 80 point triumph over Essendon a week later. This left them with a season's record of 16 wins out of 22, and earned them a qualifying final date with ladder leaders West Coast at Subiaco. Three weeks earlier the Eagles had downed Hawthorn by 4 goals at the same venue, but this time the stakes were higher. Playing a superb brand of finals football the Hawks withstood all the home side could hurl at them during a torrid opening quarter, and thereafter gradually assumed control to emerge a comfortable 23 points to the good. The following week Hawthorn's wealth of experience was instrumental in their overcoming Geelong by 2 points in the 2nd semi final. The Cats saw more of the ball during the decisive final stanza but, typically, the Hawks used it better to secure an instant passage to the 1991 grand final. Hawthorn's opponents in the premiership decider turned out to be West Coast, which to many people's surprise had seen off the challenge of the Cats in a low scoring, bruising preliminary final. The match was scheduled for VFL Park at Waverley because the MCG was undergoing extensive re-construction work which had reduced its capacity considerably. |
Nathan Thompson (at rear of pack) takes a strong grab against Melbourne. (Click to enlarge.) |
During the week leading up to the grand final crowds of 10,000 turned up at Glenferrie to watch the Hawks training - more people than had attended a number of home and away matches during the season (none involving Hawthorn, but a couple featuring the Eagles). In general, though, there was less fervour about the build up to this particular grand final than was usually the case. The intense parochialism of many Victorian football supporters, who perceived West Coast as 'invaders' of 'their' tradition, probably being the single largest cause of this, although the fact that the match was taking place away from the traditional Mecca of Australian football may also have had a detrimental effect on people's expectation level.
Once grand final day itself arrived, however, the atmosphere was little different from normal, except for the unbalanced nature of the crowd's support, with somewhere in the region of 90% of those in attendance barracking for Hawthorn. Buoyed by this support, the Hawks might reasonably have been expected to hurtle out of the blocks, but in fact it was the Eagles who kicked the first 4 goals of the game after a number of unaccustomedly undisciplined errors by Hawthorn defenders. Thereafter, the brown and golds enjoyed the lion's share of the possession, but still entered the quarter time break 9 points in arrears. However, from the second term on it was clear that there was only going to be one winner as the supposedly 'past it' Hawks ran their younger opponents ragged. Underrated forward Paul Dear capped an outstanding finals campaign with an all action display of aggressive running and powerful high marking to secure the Norm Smith Medal. Dear's 11 possession 6 mark second quarter was particularly impressive and, in the context of the game, decisive. With crumbers John Platten and Darrin Pritchard impressively outpointing their Eagles opposite numbers, a winning ruck courtesy of Steve Lawrence, and sterling efforts from the likes of James Morrissey, Jason Dunstall (6 goals) and Andrew Gowers, Hawthorn gradually gained control of the match before 'exploding' in the final term to add 8.4 to 1.3 and win comfortably by 53 points, 20.19 (139) to 13.8 (86). Some predictably insisted on seeing the game as a triumph for Victoria over Western Australia; in reality, however, it was just another impressive chapter in the history of one of Australia's outstanding sporting clubs.
The Hawks of 1992 were arguably as strong if not stronger than in '91 and their convincing retention of the Fosters Cup attested to this. However, once September arrived they suffered the misfortune of being paired with the Eagles at Subiaco in week one of the finals in a sudden death replay of the previous year's grand final. West Coast had learned from their failure of twelve months earlier, and, backed by a fanatical crowd, provided opposition of the highest order. Nevertheless, the Hawks were a trifle unfortunate to lose, with the eventual margin being only 13 points.
At times in both 1993 and 1994 the Hawks appeared as awesome as ever, but there were also a number of uncharacteristically brittle performances. Alan Joyce's stint as coach came to an abrupt end after the Hawks' disappointing loss to Adelaide during the first week of the 1993 finals series and he was replaced by highly respected former player Peter Knights.
Knights' brief tenure proved disastrous, however, as in 1995 the Hawks finished a dismal 15th, bringing to a conclusive end the club's AFL/VFL record of reaching thirteen consecutive finals series. There was much doom and gloom at Glenferrie, and merger speculation began in earnest.
The merger speculation continued in 1996 under Knights' replacement, Ken Judge, but the doom and gloom was gradually dissipated as Hawthorn defied all the odds to clinch 8th spot on the ladder and a finals berth. Many observers then believed that only an injury to champion full forward Jason Dunstall prevented a continuation of the fairy tale at the SCG against minor premiers Sydney. As it was, the Hawks lost by a goal but, buoyed by the improvement shown by their side, coupled with the determined resistance to the merger concept voiced by former Hawk greats like Don Scott and Dermot Brereton, the Hawthorn members rejected a proposal that their club amalgamate with Melbourne (the Demons' members meanwhile voted 'yes').
The 1997 season brought record membership numbers but, unfortunately, a dismal on field performance. The Hawks ultimately finished 15th after at one stage looking probable finals participants. The following season appeared likely to yield an even more dismal return as the side endured a concerted spell on the bottom of the ladder, only to recover significantly over the course of the final few games to proffer a measure of hope for the future. After starting the 1999 season promisingly with an impressive Ansett Australia Cup grand final defeat of Port Adelaide, the Hawks failed to maintain consistency during the home and away rounds, and ultimately finished 9th. Hawthorn's final match of the season was also the last ever AFL fixture at Waverley. An emotional crowd of 72,130 turned up to bid farewell to the ground and also to make a statement about the league hierarchy's intransigence over the sale of the ground. In the event, Hawthorn's 23.15 (153) to 11.2 (68) demolition of the Swans provided, if anything, an even more eloquent statement.
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Prospects for that future were bolstered somewhat during a 2000 season which saw the Hawks return to finals contention for the first time since 1996 and, more importantly, actually win a finals match for the first time since the 1991 grand final. Hawthorn's victims in the 1st elimination final were Geelong, but, in the broader context of club survival, brown and gold celebrations may have been tempered by the realisation that, in the supposed hotbed of Australian football, fewer people chose to attend the match than turned up at a rugby union international on the same ground a few days earlier. The Kangaroos ended Hawthorn's premiership aspirations a week later with a hard fought 10 point win. Season 2001 saw Hawthorn fall into the finals after some lack lustre end of year performances but once there that renowned Hawk toughness and resolve re-surfaced. Victories over Sydney by 55 points and Port Adelaide at Football Park by a nerve-tingling 3 points were full of merit, as was the Hawks' eventual elimination from the finals race against reigning premier Essendon. Trailing by 36 points at the long break Hawthorn dug deep in the 2nd half to fall short by only 9 points at the finish. Unforced skill errors late in the game cost the Hawks dearly but there seemed little doubt overall that the side was moving in the right direction. Sadly, the 2002 and 2003 seasons either disproved this impression, or at very least provided a substantial hiccup, as the Hawks endured two frustratingly inconsistent years to finish mid-stream, and out of the finals race. Moreover, in 2004 things got even worse, with the side managing just 4 wins for the year, and missing the wooden spoon only on percentage. Since then there has been gradual and ultimately decisive improvement, with the 2007 side seeming for a time to be capable of giving the premiership a real shake before falling in something of a heap late season, and the 2008 team doing precisely the opposite to claim an unexpected, but wholly meritorious, flag thanks to a 26 points grand final win over a raging hot pre-match favourite in Geelong. With their defence superbly marshalled by Norm Smith Medallist Luke Hodge, and a superb quartet of on-ballers in Xavier Ellis (28 disposals), Brad Sewell (27), Michael Osborne (26) and veteran Shane Crawford (25), the Hawks managed to keep their noses in front for most of an entertaining first half, and after half time they added 10 goals to 5 to leave no one in any doubt of their entitlement to the premiership. |
Graham Arthur, 237 games for Hawthorn between 1955 and 1968, and selected as captain of the club's 'Team of the Century'. |
Over the past half a century the Hawthorn Football Club has made a contribution to the sport of Australian football which very few if any clubs can match. Some of the greatest players in football history have donned the famous brown and gold colours over the years; players like Matthews, Hudson, Platten, Tuck, Martello, Crimmins, Peck, Scott, Austen, Knights, Moore, Dunstall, Brereton, Ayres, Edwards and Wallace, to name just a few. Given the right amount of luck to go with their undoubted administrative expertise and indomitable club spirit there is every reason to suppose that the Hawthorn Football Club will continue to participate with distinction at the highest level of Australian football - that is to say, as a member in its own right of the Australian Football League - for many years to come.
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