Match Preview: Box Hill Welcome North Melbourne

Off the mark and back at home, round two of the VFL season represents a fantastic opportunity for the Hawks to consolidate a good start to 2025.

Who: North Melbourne
Where: Box Hill City Oval
When: Saturday, 2:05pm
TV/Streaming: VFL live stream available via the VFL Match Centre

Home Comforts

At home for the first time in 2025 and with the senior team down in Tassie later that evening, there’s no better way for Hawks’ fans to get their footy fix than a trip to Box Hill City Oval this Saturday afternoon.

And if you needed any more incentive to head down, entry is free for Hawthorn members!

A Little Bit of History

The Hawks first met the North Melbourne Reserves in round 8, 2018 and have squared off seven times in all across the subsequent six seasons.

The Roos got the jump early on, pardon the pun, winning the first two meetings of the sides in 2018 and 2019; the second of which was an incredible come-from-behind victory at Arden Street in round 18 of 2019.

Trailing by 31-points at the last change, North kicked 6.2 to 0.5 to rattle home and snatch the points.

But since then it’s been all Box Hill.

The Hawks have claimed the past five match-ups, including wins by 108, 71 and 60 points.

The 108-point win in round 5, 2021 was capped by an extraordinary 10-goal-to-nil final term, while last season’s round 4 victory at City Oval saw the brown and gold kick 20 goals on the afternoon and run away with the contest after half time, booting 12-goals-to-four.

On the flip side, two of the Hawks’ five successive wins have been nail biters. First was a five-point win in late 2023 and secondly was the last time the teams met, a closer-than-the-scoreboard-suggests 14-point victory in tricky conditions.

What will Saturday have in store? I don’t know. I’m not from the future.

The Season So Far

Box Hill – played 1, 1 win, 0 losses, 8th on VFL ladder
North Melbourne – played 1, 0 wins, 0 losses, 1 draw, 10th on VFL ladder

With just one round of footy in the books its hard to get a read on any side. But with that said, both Box Hill and North Melbourne were involved in week one heart-stoppers.

As we know, the Hawks were good enough to withstand a spirited late fightback from the Blues, whereas the Roos looked to have let the points slip against Casey, only to salvage a draw.

New recruits Trent Bianco and Kye Declase lead the way for the Hawks in our four point win at IKON Park tallying 31 and 24 disposals respectively, while Zac Fisher and Adam Tomlinson were the in the thick of the action for North Melbourne.

Ton’s Up

Saturday marks a special occasion for Declase, who will suit up for his 100th VFL match. The outstanding Northern Knights product has played 11 games for the Northern Blues, 83 matches for Werribee, four for Casey and his second game in brown and gold brings up triple digits.

Despite only arriving this past pre-season, Kye has quickly become a much-loved and appreciated member of the Box Hill family. 

Selection News

The Hawks have made three changes to the side which accounted for Carlton a week ago, bringing in Sam Durdin, Sam Frost and Bodie Ryan for Luke Breust (elevated to the seniors), Daniel Wood and Jack Sammartino.

Wood and Sammartino can consider themselves extremely unlucky to be omitted, but both were excellent against the Blues and will no doubt be back in the mix sooner rather than later.

Having looked comfortable at IKON Park a week ago, Gippsland Power’s Lane Ward will be keen to build on his 17-disposal showing off a wing, while broadly speaking continuity is the order of the day in midfield.

Ruckman Ned Reeves will again look to service the midfield core of Declase, Trent Bianco, Cal Porter, Corey Preston, Jake Arundell and Henry Hustwaite.

One(s) to Watch

When I wrote this piece for round one I was unaware this weekend would be Kye’s 100th VFL match. If I had known, I’d have kept him aside as this weekend’s one to watch and used Trent Bianco last weekend…

Alas, off-season acquisition Trent Bianco was superb first out of the gate in his new colours, winning an equal game-high 31 touches, taking 10 marks and being the Hawks’ top rated player on the ground.

The ex-Collingwood AFL-listed player spent 2024 on Footscray’s VFL list and showcased his ball-winning and running ability throughout last Friday night’s win at Carlton, but it was his senior leadership which shone through.

How To Follow

Match coverage will be provided via our social channels throughout the day, while a radio call will be available via our wonderful community partners 3WBC 94.1FM.

Where To Watch

You can catch the live stream via the VFL match centre! The VFL live stream is available via the VFL Match Centre.