HAWTHORN Football Club president, Jeff Kennett, unveiled on Saturday night a new look for the Hawks in front of a sell-out audience of over 1300 at the 2007 Peter Crimmins Medal awards night.

The Hawks will play under the new logo in 2008, which displays a strong and determined Hawk, focused and ready to hunt.

The brave new shield represents an unwavering horizon for the club which has re-built itself both on and off the field to be one of the most exciting young and talented teams in the AFL, as well as one of the most professional administrative teams in Australian sport.

In 2007 the Hawthorn Football Club started the first of a five-year partnership with naming rights partner Tasmania.

This partnership, coupled with an exciting brand of attacking football, showed a bright future for the Hawthorn Football Club.

This promising future is reflected in the new design by renowned Australian design firm Cato Purnell Partners.

Cato Purnell have been responsible for some of Australia’s leading icons and brands, including the Commonwealth Bank, Medibank, Macquarie, Channel 7, MSAC Aquatic Centre, VB and Carlton Draught.

In creating a new direction for the Hawks, Cato Purnell Partners, under the guidance of Ken Cato, felt they needed to reflect the focus and determination he had observed within the club so as to communicate that effectively to its members.

“The new shield portrays a sense of determination, pride, and focus. The Hawthorn Football Club is a club on the move. In the design we have hoped to capture the steely resolve it takes to win a premiership. That is the clear ambition of the Hawks,” Mr Cato said.

Jeff Kennett was delighted to present the new logo to the Hawthorn faithful at the 2007 Peter Crimmins Medal.

“Hawthorn Football Club has gone through a transformation in recent years, rebuilding itself to be competitive in all areas of football.

“[Head coach] Alastair Clarkson and his coaching staff have done a terrific job of bringing together an exciting group of young talented footballers, who have shown in 2007 they can play an impressive style of finals footy.

“The new crest for our club symbolises the focus and determination of everyone involved with the Hawks; our players, our staff, our members and supporters, and our board,” Mr Kennett said.

“We have competed under our previous banner for 10 years and the club feels the time is right to regroup and be represented by this brave new look as we continue to grow both on and off the field.”

Hawthorn Football Club logo history
When Hawthorn joined the VFL in 1925, the initials HFC within a circle on a brown and gold flag was introduced as the logo. The club was known as the Mayblooms.

In 1943 the club was christened the Hawks when coach Roy Cazaly sought a more robust image. The new logo depicted a Hawk carrying a football in its talons flying in front of the Hawthorn Football Club flag.

A stronger and simpler version of the Hawk was adopted in 1948, and later depicted in 1952. In 1955 the flying Hawk carrying the football was reintroduced. This popular image became the face of the Hawks through the 1960s and 1970s when Hawthorn won four premierships.

To herald Hawthorn’s progressive publicity push in 1982, the new force of the 80s, a new logo was sought. The club approached Swinburne Institute where a student submitted the winning design, the stylised Hawk head.

This image represented the club’s most successful era with five premierships.

By the mid 1990s the club had endured the merger debate and the logo once more returned to the flying Hawk.

After 100 years at Glenferrie the club moved in 2006 to Waverley and now 2008 will herald a new era of success - under this Hawks logo