Melbourne Hawks (The team that could have been)

 The Melbourne Hawks Football Club, nicknamed The Hawks, is an Australian rules football club playing in the Australian Football League (AFL) based in Melbourne, Victoria.

Founded after the merging of two clubs; the Melbourne Demons and the Hawthorn Hawks, the club has been reletively succesfull in it's first decade (1997-2007) playing in 5 grand finals (2000, 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2007) but only winning 2 (2003 and 2007).

Shortly after its' victory in 2007, the club fell from being top of the ladder in 2007 to 13th in 2008 followed by 14th in 2009, but came back after the return of the captain Troy Broadbridge, getting to 5th in 2010 and 7th in 2011.

Foundation (1996)
Following a vote in Melbourne, the AFL approved the second ever club merger (after Fiztroy and Brisbane). The Melbourne Demons and the Hawthorn Hawks combined to create the Melbourne Hawks. Before the end of the season, both teams were not doing in their financial sector, but the Hawks were doing fairly average on field. On 4th of November 1996, after the end of the season, both clubs officially merged to become the Melbourne Hawks, entering the game in 1997.

Early Beginnings (1997-1999)
Following their first losses in the first 5 matches of the 1997 season, the club finally won against the other merger team, the Brisbane Lions 117-84. It was their first win in the season and by that margin caused the fans to go wild. Throughout the rest of the season they managed to win 9 more games, before comming 9th on the ladder. Over the next 2 years, the club came in 9th every time. This gave rise to the popular phrase "position nine hawks".

A New Decade (2000-2009)
Following its three years finishing 9th place, Melbourne began a recruiting campaign, employing major players from other clubs and the NFL. They turned the tide midway through the 2000 season, finishing 5th. After beating Carlton in the elimination, Essendon in the Semi's, North Melbourne in the Preliminaries and went on to their first final against Geelong, but lost their footing in the third quater after having a 15 point lead, and loosing by 8. In the next 2 years the hung around the top 8 coming in at 6th place and 8th place. Then in 2003, they pushed through to 2nd place, and following a close game in the Preliminary against Brisbane (87-86), they managed to get into another grand final, this time against Sydney. After being down by 4 points untill the last 2 minutes, when the ruck Jeff White kicked a goal. This was Melbournes first victory. After that, they managed to come in 3rd in the 2004 seasonm, and once again play Brisbane in the Preliminaries, and then Sydney in the Final, which won again, this time 153-137. Following the victory they settled down into the 2005 season, coming in at first place but losing to the Western Bulldogs in the Premliminaries. The Bulldogs went on to get their 2nd ever grand final victory.