Beau Muston has become just the third player to make his debut for Hawthorn in his fourth season after being drafted.

Muston, who was taken at pick 22 in the 2005 National Draft, made an outstanding debut last Sunday against Melbourne, nine rounds into his fourth season on the Hawthorn list.

The previous two players to debut in their fourth season were Matthew Young and David Loats. 

Young was taken with pick 30 in the 1990 National Draft and did not make his debut until Round 8, 1994 in a 99 point thrashing of Brisbane at Waverley.  Young played 21 games for the Hawks in 1994-95, before shifting to St Kilda where he played a further 97 games in six seasons. 

Loats was taken with pick 51 in the 1998 National Draft, and did not make his debut until Round 12, 2002, meaning he retains the title of the longest journey from drafting to debut in Hawthorn history.   His debut was as part of an undermanned Hawthorn team which lost narrowly to Essendon at the MCG.  Loats played another two games in 2002, followed by eight in 2003.  A move to Geelong in 2004 saw him chalk up one more AFL game.

A number of other players have made their Hawthorn debuts in the third season after their initial drafting, including Scott Crow, Simon Crawshay, Jonathon Robran, Angelo Lekkas, Brad Scott, Ben Dixon, Tim Boyle and Matthew Little.



Beau Muston is the first player from Shepparton for 50 years to make his debut for Hawthorn.  It last happened in Round 18, 1959 when Cam McPherson made his debut.  McPherson went on to play 104 games in brown and gold, including being a member of the 1961 Premiership team.



Beau Muston is the sixth player born on 1 March to represent Hawthorn.  He was born in 1987, 35 years after his most famous predecessor, Leigh Matthews, was born on 1 March, 1952.  Another significant 1 March birthday boy is David Polkinghorne, an important member of the Hawks 1976 and 1978 Premiership teams, born in 1956. 



Lance Franklin’s 4 goals on Sunday took his career tally to 269 and equal 11th place on the club career goal-kicking list, sharing the position with the legendary, Bert Hyde. 

Hyde played from 1925-1935, topping the club goal-kicking in five consecutive seasons 1926-30, with a season high of 62 (3rd in the League) in the club’s winless year of 1928.  He booted 7 goals in a game on three separate occasions. He would have kicked many more goals except later in his career he was shifted to full-back, earning the unusual distinction of winning State selection at both ends of the ground.  A sporting all-rounder, Hyde also finished second in the Stawell Gift.  His nephew, Alf Hughes, was a leading Hawthorn player in the 1950s, representing Victoria like his uncle, and winning the Best & Fairest in 1957 when the club made the Finals for the first time.



In Round 12 last season, Hawthorn scored its first win against Adelaide at Football Park since 1994. 

The Hawks lost this fixture in 8 of the intervening 13 seasons (perhaps fortunately not finding it on the fixture in the other five).  The sequence began with a 2 point loss in 1995, but after that the next narrowest margin was 33 points in 1998, with the others including thrashings by 86 points (2000) and 71 points (2007).  Of course, the Hawks first ever clash with Adelaide in Round 1, 1991 also produced an 86 point loss.

Remarkably, one of Hawthorn’s three wins against Adelaide at Football Park was by a bigger margin than any of the nine defeats.  It was in Round 9, 1994 that the Hawks obliterated the Crows by 97 points – 22.13.145 to 7.6.48.  The victory was built on amazing first and third quarters, in both of which Adelaide failed to score, while the Hawks kicked 8.1 and 8.5 respectively.  The stars were Jason Dunstall who kicked 5 in the opening term on his way to 9 and John Platten who kicked a career-high 6 goals.  

Last season’s game was close all night, with the Hawks trailing by 1, 2, and 3 points at the breaks, before turning it around in the final term, to win 11.10.76 to 10.12.72.  Luke Hodge kicked the winning goal.  Hodge was rated second best for the Hawks, behind captain, Sam Mitchell.  The only other win against Adelaide at Football Park was in 1993, by 17 points on the Friday night of Round 6.



Given the away record, it is fortunate that in 13 home games against Adelaide, the Hawks hold an 8-5 advantage and with the ledger squared at 1-1 in Finals, it makes the overall record 12-15 after 27 games.

The current sequence of three consecutive wins is Hawthorn’s best against the Crows.  The sequence began in the 2007 Elimination Final at Docklands and was continued in Round 4 last year and set the new mark in Round 12 at Football Park.



Ten years ago this round, Hawthorn scored a 6 point win against Richmond – 12.15.87 to 11.15.81 – in front of 45,382 at the MCG.  The Hawks got off to a good start, leading by 16 points at quarter time, but Richmond cut that margin to 3 at the final change.  Paul Salmon was outstanding, his ruckwork highlighted by a brilliant tap to set up a Richard Taylor goal in the final quarter.  Joel Smith played his best game for the club since crossing from St Kilda, while another player from another club, ex-North star Anthony Rock, continued his recent good form.  Angelo Lekkas also showed why he had been picked to play for Victoria the previous week with another excellent game.



The bad news is that, since that win over Richmond in 1999, Hawthorn has lost eight of its past nine matches in Round 10.  The good news is that the sole win in those nine games was at this week’s venue, Football Park, in 2007.  That game was against Port Adelaide and saw the Hawks score a comfortable 34 point win. None of the eight defeats was by a narrow margin, the closest being 21 points in 2006 and the heaviest 86 points in 2004. 

Last season Round 10 saw the Hawks finally blot their copybook, after a 9-0 start to the season, with a 32 defeat by the Bulldogs at Aurora Stadium.  It would have been a heavier defeat if not for kicking an accurate 12.2.74 (versus 15.16.106), largely contributed by Franklin 5 goals and Roughead 4.  Overall, Round 10 has been one of the club’s better rounds with 41 wins and 43 defeats.



Jason Dunstall had an excellent record against Adelaide. He kicked 9 on three separate occasions – in 1993 and 1994 (both at Football Park) and in 1996 (at Waverley). He also kicked an 8 and a 7 against the Crows.  The best by a current player against Adelaide is 7 – the unforgettable 7 booted by Lance Franklin’s in the 2007 Elimination Final.  The most goals by a Hawthorn player in Round 10 is also a tally of 9 – by Peter Knights in 1985, Paul Hudson in 1991 and Jason Dunstall in 1998, against Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon respectively.