Turn a few pages and they’ll tell you just five Hawks played in three premierships during those years, among the most glorious the club has experienced.

Delve a bit deeper and they’ll talk about the day a Warrnambool-raised tough nut capped off a career-best campaign with one of the great grand final displays.

Jordan Lewis finished the Hawks’ dismantling of Sydney as the second-most prolific player ever to grace the MCG on the last Saturday in September. The 28-year-old onballer carved up the hapless Swans with 21 kicks, 16 handballs, eight marks, seven clearances and five inside-50s.

His disposal tally ranks as second in grand final history, only behind Simon Black’s 39 in 2003 when the Brisbane Lions completed their threepeat.

Luke Hodge won the Norm Smith Medal, and justifiably so. But if they could award two, Lewis was a contender for the second. Not that it mattered to either. “It’s a great award, don’t get me wrong, but you can’t share it with anyone. I’d rather have this and share it with everyone,” Lewis said.

“Take nothing away from Hodgey, he was outstanding today, he really hit the scoreboard and was composed under pressure.”

Lewis said the Hawks deserved consideration among the great sides of the AFL era. Their four premierships since 1990 is a competition record.

“We’ve got to be up there with the really good sides in the modern era. To win three premierships in seven years is a pretty fair effort,” he said.

“When you understand what it takes, you need a bit of luck, you need players playing right at the right time of the year.

“But we’ve put in place so much hard work throughout the season to come to a game like this and understand where we need to be and what we need to do.”

Lewis and teammate Shaun Burgoyne led the way during a frantic first quarter that put Hawthorn on the path to the flag. The pair combined for 19 disposals while the Hawks led the disposals 104-86, the tackle count 22-7 and the inside-50 count 19-7.

Lewis then maintained that consistency for the remaining three terms. He was the pick of the onballers come the final siren but was not alone as a contributor. Hodge was damaging everywhere — in the midfield and up forward in the first half and in defence directing traffic after the long break. There were others, too.

Sam Mitchell was his typical self alongside Lewis. Brad Hill was the pick of the speedsters. Will Langford was the X-factor who kicked three goals.

Jarryd Roughead finished with five goals, hammering the final nails into the Swans’ coffin after others had inflicted the first wounds. 

“It feels a bit surreal to be honest. I think in grand finals you’re very fortunate to enjoy the last 10 minutes and soak it up,” Lewis said. “We didn’t expect anything less today, we understood we came here with a set game plan we wanted to carry out throughout the day.

“I thought no one was a passenger today. Every player who stepped on the ground, especially for us, played their role. It was a complete game from us.”