Side note – This is my 1000th post.

Go me.

1. Assuming he doesn’t get hit by a bus, Shaun Burgoyne will become the fifth player in VFL/AFL history to play 400 games, the first Indigenous player to play 400 games, and interestingly, he’s the first member of the 400 Game Club (Bartlett, Tuck, Fletcher & Harvey) to play for at least two clubs, which in Silk’s case are Hawthorn (242 games thus far) and Port Adelaide (157 games).

As if life imitates art, they just happen to be playing this weekend at Docklands.

And to think he was only supposed to last until 2013 at a maximum due to his knees.

2. There have been a grand total of nine players represent both Hawthorn and Port Adelaide since 1997

Shaun Burgoyne, Brent Guerra, Nathan Lonie, Stephen Gilham, Stuart Dew, Brent Renouf, Jarman Impey, Chad Wingard and Ryan Burton.

Of those 9, only Burton and Wingard were directly traded for each other back in 2018, while 5 played in a Premiership at Hawthorn, while Burgoyne and Dew played in Port Adelaide’s 2004 Premiership team, before they tasted further premiership success with the Hawks, although they were never teammates at Hawthorn, as Dew retired after 2009, and Burgoyne was traded to Hawthorn during that off-season.

3. Trading greatest winning margins

Port Adelaide’s greatest winning margin since they entered the AFL in 1997 came against Hawthorn in Round 13 of 2005, when they won by 117 points and produced their current record score of 29.14-188 in the process.

The game also stands as the last time the Hawks lost a game by 100+ points.

As if trading an eye for an eye, Hawthorn’s greatest winning margin in club history came against Port Adelaide in Round 21 of 2011, when they won by 165 points, with the Hawks’ score of 31.11-197 being their greatest score of the 21st Century.

Continuing the theme, the game is also the last time Port Adelaide have lost a game by 100+ points.

Shaun Burgoyne played in the winning team both times, and further to it, from the 2011 game, only Burgoyne, Liam Shiels and Travis Boak will feature on Saturday, with Robbie Gray, who also played that afternoon, out injured.

4. Alastair Clarkson was an assistant at Port Adelaide when Hawthorn hired him in 2004

Also, were Hawthorn playing on the same night Clarko had that encounter with the annoying fan?

PORT ADELAIDE.

5. The first team to defeat Hawthorn in Tasmania?

Port Adelaide, in Round 10 of 2002.

Just further to the Tasmania thing, between 2001 and 2010, the highest score at York Park/Aurora Stadium from the 33 games at the ground was 117 points, specifically a scoreline of 17.15-117.

Both times the scoreline appeared, Hawthorn and Port Adelaide were the teams involved.

6. Finally, the first time an interstate club won a final in Adelaide?

Hawthorn against Port Adelaide in the 2001 Semi Final at Football Park.