- May 23, 2016
- 7,007
- 5,937
- AFL Club
- West Coast
In terms of membership, average crowd figures, apparent casual fans etc, Hawthorn isn't usually grouped with Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon and Richmond as one of the big 4 Melbourne clubs. Given it's by far the most successful club in the VFL/AFL since the 60s, why is this? I get they were cellar dwellers on the level of North, St Kilda, Footscray for a long time, but that's a long time ago. I understand they gained many fans in the 70s-80s and again in the 10s...yet they almost merged in 1996 with Melbourne, which had the opposite trajectory to Hawthorn: in 1964 Hawthorn had won 1 flag to Melbourne's 12. By 2020 they'd overtaken Melbourne 13 to 12 unbelievably, before Melbourne broke the drought. Kind of cool you have 3 clubs on 13 now.
But yeah, interested to hear some unbiased opinions/thoughts.
Sdit: realise title sounds a bit silly now, but the question is more why they dont have more supporters...or maybe they do but fewer 'serious' ones?
But yeah, interested to hear some unbiased opinions/thoughts.
Sdit: realise title sounds a bit silly now, but the question is more why they dont have more supporters...or maybe they do but fewer 'serious' ones?