Preview: Box Hill Set For Roos Clash

The Hawks venture out to Arden Street on Saturday afternoon, keen to hit the ground running following last weekend’s bye.

Who: North Melbourne
Where: Arden Street
When: Saturday, 12:05pm
TV/Streaming: Live stream available via the VFL Match Centre

Past Five Meetings

Round 2, 2025: Box Hill 14.8 92 def. North Melbourne 12.11 83
Round 17, 2024: North Melbourne 5.16 46 def. by Box Hill 8.12 60
Round 4, 2024: Box Hill 20.11 131 def. North Melbourne 10.11 71
Round 17, 2023: North Melbourne 10.8 68 def. by Box Hill 10.13 73
Round 11, 2022: North Melbourne 4.12 36 def. by Box Hill 15.17 107

A Little Bit of History

Played 8 – Box Hill 6, North Melbourne 2

The Northerners claimed the first two meetings between the Roos and Hawks at the VFL level following the launch of their integrated reserves program prior to 2018. Since then it’s been all Box Hill.

Three of the Hawks’ wins have been big ones – by 108, 71 and 60 points respectively; while the remaining three have been in the balance deep into time on of the fourth quarter.

A Max Hall goal late on gave the Hawks just enough breathing room to win the round 17, 2023 match-up by five points; while both sides found the goals hard to come by in the last meeting at Arden Street – round 17, 2024.

The teams combined for 13.28 on an afternoon in which Box Hill edged away after quarter time to win the match by 14-points.

The most recent clash was back in round two of the 2025 season and won in stirring fashion by the team in brown and gold. 17-points in arrears at the first change, Box Hill rallied to close the gap to just two-points at the half. In a rollicking third term Max Ramsden kicked truly early in the third quarter to give the Hawks a slender lead, only to see North slam on the next five majors to blow the game apart.

Ethan Stanley and Kye Declase kicked the timeliest of goals at the 26 and 28 minute marks to draw Box Hill to within touching distance with one to play. Still, 17-points was a sizeable buffer.

Ned Reeves gave Zane Littlejohn precisely the start he’d have hoped for once the final quarter resumed, only for Cooper Harvey to cancel whatever early headway the Hawks had made.

With 18 minutes gone Box Hill were still 16-points adrift. Stanley’s second ignited a flurry of activity and, fortunately for the home team, it was all one way.

Cal Porter’s first of the day got his side to within a kick, before a quick fire double from Jasper Scaife sealed a memorable come-from-behind win.

The Season So Far

Box Hill – played eleven, won nine, lost two – first on the VFL ladder; form W, W, L, W, W

North Melbourne – played eleven, won seven, lost three, drawn one – 6th on the VFL ladder; form W, W, W, L, W

The Hawks and Kangaroos will stroll into Arden Street as two of the VFL’s form outfits. Both are four-and-one across their past five fixtures and while separated by five ladder spots the gap from first to sixth is just six premiership points.

The Hawks recovered from a disappointing round 10 loss to Collingwood to record back-to-back wins against Frankston and Coburg in rounds 11 and 12, before enjoying a bye last weekend.

With the home and away season about to tick beyond two-thirds completed, Box Hill have the equal second best defence, the fourth most potent attack and the second best percentage in the competition.

Southport’s shock home defeat to the 19th-placed Sydney last Saturday meant the Hawks reclaimed outright first on the VFL ladder. The Swans notched their second win of the season with an incredible 5.4 to 0.6 final quarter.

As for the Kangaroos, Saturday’s hosts recorded a draw and a loss in their first two hit-outs of 2025, before recording three wins in succession against Sydney, Carlton and Essendon to right their season.

North recovered from a round seven loss to Brisbane with a two-point win over Richmond the following week and a 73-point belting of Collingwood a week later again.

They got a hold of Werribee at Avalon Airport Oval after a round 10 bye, dropped a game to Port Melbourne at home in round 12 and again rebounded to roll the Blues by a single point last weekend.

Selection News

The big ticket item is, clearly, the inclusion of big man Mitch Lewis.

The Hawks’ no.2 will play his first competitive minutes since rupturing his ACL nearly a year ago, using Saturday’s match at Arden Street as the first step in a return to Hawthorn’s senior side.

Henry Hustwaite also returns following a stint in the AFL set-up, while Calsher Dear is back having been managed for the trip to Coburg.

Exciting VFL-listed duo Nathan Philactides and Blake Simondson are also among the ins.

Out of the side go the elevated pair of Cam Mackenzie & Sam Frost, who link up with the Hawthorn outfit down in Tasmania, as well as Jack Scrimshaw, who misses with a minor hamstring complaint.

Joining them among the outs due to a niggle is skipper Cal Porter, while Jamie Uhr-Henry, who had some nice moments on debut a fortnight ago, will continue his development at Community Club level.

One(s) To Watch

357 days removed from a devastating ACL injury suffered against the Cats, Hawthorn key forward Mitch Lewis will take a significant step towards a senior recall on Saturday afternoon.

A 2018 VFL premiership player with Box Hill, Lewis is due a run of luck following a number of injury niggles which have restricted the talented marking forward to eight, fourteen, fifteen, fifteen and four games across the past five seasons.

The Hawks’ no.2 kicked three goals in his two VFL matches last year – both of which were completed on managed minutes – and, simply, it’ll be fantastic to see him back on the field.

How To Follow

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

Where to Watch

You can catch the live stream via the VFL match centre.