ARE THE eerie similarities between this season and the first time Hawthorn met Adelaide in a knockout final too tantalizingly kooky to ignore?

In 1993, the elimination final matched a hardened, veteran-stacked Hawks line-up against a Crows side brimming with youth, talent and the expectations of an entire state on their shoulders.

It is Adelaide's third year in the AFL and the team includes the likes of Tony Modra, Andrew Jarman, Mark Bickley and Mark Ricciuto.

The Hawks' superstars are potent and plentiful; John Platten, Jason Dunstall, Chris Langford, Gary Ayres and Shane Crawford are examples of the team's firepower and skill.

No one expects an Adelaide victory, so when it comes, by 15 points, the footy world is astonished and the Crows arrive home to a euphoric greeting.

The loss turned out to be the last game for Ayres and coach Alan Joyce and it sent the Hawks (despite reaching the finals the following year) on a downward spiral that saw them almost merge.

The 2015 season might seem a world away, but consider this: in the seven years preceding that 1993 shocker, the Hawks had been in every finals series, for three premierships and one Grand Final berth, in 1987.

The seven years before this season have yielded three premierships and one runner-up disappointment (2012). The club has been in all but one finals series from 2007-15

Hawthorn has every right to feel mentally and physically exhausted, that kind of sustained, brilliant run cannot help but take its toll.

However, veteran forward Jarryd Roughead says questions of the Hawks' hunger are bunkum:

"Every year, there's a hunger within the group to win. You want it every year, for as long as you can," Roughead says in an AFL Record feature story.

"You never know if you're ever going to be back again. I don't want to have to be dealing with Mad Monday next week."

Read the full story on Hawthorn’s immediate future in this week’s edition of the AFL Record, available at both semi-final venues.