"We're a happy team at Hawthorn ... Well, 'happy' isn't the word – more like delirious. I wept, I quaffed Veuve Clicquot, I hugged grown men ... The ether was abuzz with electronic missives, the very air alive and humming with Hawthorn transmissions."

This book tracks Hawthorn's triumphant 2013 season through the eyes of Phillip Taylor, Hawks tragic. A hallucinatory account of all things Hawthorn, it celebrates the sartorial splendour of the brown and gold stripes, traces the numerological power of the number 23 and reveals how Hawthorn broke its Groundhog Day disorder against Geelong.

These days, there are more television hours spent analysing the AFL each week than there is actual game time. This book doesn't dwell on the kicks, corkies, handballs or hard-ball gets. Rather, it traces Hawthorn's dramatic and eventful season from the fans' perspective, giving voice to the excitement, exasperation and – ultimately – exhilaration that all Hawks supporters felt.

From the public bar to the members' pocket at the MCG, this is the definitive record of Hawthorn's 2013 premiership campaign, celebrating the AFL's latest (brown and) golden era.

Phillip Taylor has supported Hawthorn for 45 years, picking the brown-and-gold jumper out of a line-up at a sports store in 1969 – a decision that not only attests to his heightened sense of fashion, but also proved somewhat prescient. He was at the MCG in 1971 when the Hawks won the premiership, and has now seen Hawthorn compete in 15 Grand Finals, winning 10 of them. He blogs about Hawthorn at hfctwenty3.blogspot.com.au.