The Machine's record is safe - the four premierships in a row achieved by Jock McHale's fabled Collingwood team won't be matched by Hawthorn.
Not this year at least.
The snarling Western Bulldogs brought an end to the Hawks' shot at history with a stunning 23-point win at the MCG on Friday night.
The scene appeared set for Alastair Clarkson's battle-hardened team when they jumped out to a 23-point lead early in the second term.
The Dogs had missed some very gettable shots for goal and looked shaky but amazingly it was the triple-premiers who would blink first.
The Bulldogs scored the last six goals of a pivotal third quarter to lead by 26 points at that break.
It certainly wasn't an insurmountable margin for Clarkson's men but as he has often in his young career, Bulldogs' gun Marcus Bontempelli rose to the occasion.
While a final term onslaught from Hawthorn seemed almost inevitable, Bontempelli wasn't having it.
In the most symbolic of plays, the young star stole the ball from old Hawks' general Luke Hodge to set up Tory Dickson for the first goal of the last quarter to settle Luke Beveridge's youthful charges.
"We were coming up against a historical giant in Hawthorn and to go out there and play with the vigour that we did ... we're on a journey," Bontempelli told the Seven Network.
"We know that we are on a journey together as a group and it is this idea of what may be, and if not someone else, why not us?
"We still don't know what we're capable of."
