Hawks and Tigers footy's ships in the night Rohan Connolly
The Age
July 31, 2015 If familiarity breeds contempt, perhaps lack of familiarity can breed fear. And that's a poser a few Hawthorn fans might be pondering ahead of Friday night's clash with Richmond.
For two clubs that have both enjoyed golden eras since the mid-1960s, the Hawks and Tigers don't seem to bump into each other that often.
Since Richmond won their first premiership for 24 years in 1967, the two clubs have collectively won 16 flags and played off in 23 grand finals. Yet, incredibly, the Hawks and Tigers have never played each other in a final.
In more recent times, they've made a pretty good fist of staying away from each other during the regular season as well. Indeed, since 2009, they've met just once each season. Friday night's game at the MCG will be only the seventh time in seven years that they've squared off.
And what might add to the fear factor even for a side riding as high as the Hawks at the moment, is what has transpired in a couple of those rare face-to-face encounters.
Hawthorn won the last clash, early last season, by a very comfortable 66 points off the back of an eight-goals-to-one third quarter. The previous two, however, were won by Richmond. And handsomely.
In 2013, the Tigers whipped Hawthorn by 41 points in round 19. And the previous year, in round nine of 2012, it was by 62 points.
That was a game in which the Hawks came out clearly unprepared for the assault that was to follow. And after grabbing an early lead, Richmond rubbed their noses in it with an eight-goal last quarter.
Richmond held sway midfield thanks to Trent Cotchin, Brett Deledio and a Tiger now long gone in Shane Tuck. In defence, Alex Rance did a job on Lance Franklin, and at the other end Jack Riewoldt booted six goals.
The Hawks must have had some serious deja vu on their way to the 2013 flag when Richmond struck again.
It was like an action replay, a six-goal final term burst clinching the deal. Cotchin and Rance were again supreme, Riewoldt took the goalkicking honours with three, and Hawthorn's forward trio of Franklin, Jarryd Roughead and Jack Gunston managed just one goal between them.
More normal transmission was resumed last year when the Hawks romped home led by a best-on-ground, four-goal performance from Cyril Rioli as the Tigers struggled through a very mediocre first half of 2014.
But when you've had as few defeats as Hawthorn has endured over the past four seasons, they tend to stick in the memory banks. In fact, since that round-nine 2012 loss, Hawthorn have played 82 games and won 68 of them.
Taking in the 2012 pasting at the hands of the Tigers, they've lost just 15 games, with some recurring themes. Four of the defeats have been at the hands of Geelong. Three, including the disaster of the 2012 grand final, against Sydney. And two losses each to the Tigers and Port Adelaide.
Yet those themes contain as much to give Hawthorn hope as Richmond. If the Hawks have had their own recurring theme in recent times, aside from winning premierships, it has been one about overcoming obstacles and removing potential bogeys.
The Hawks have now won four of their past five games against Geelong, a run beginning with that drought-breaking 2013 preliminary final thriller, but the dominance building, from a 23-point win late in 2013, to a decisive six-goal victory two weeks later in the qualifying final, to the round-one thumping to the tune of 62 points this season.
And Hawthorn's 89-point pasting of Sydney a fortnight ago was their sixth win over the Swans in those teams' past eight meetings.
Round 19 2013 is a few days short of exactly two years ago. And as well as Hawthorn were travelling then, few would argue they look an even more potent force. Maybe this time the Tigers will have to rely on the outside chance of complacency as well as absence breeding anxiety in their opponent.
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