Round 2, 1938
Melbourne vs Hawthorn
Saturday 30 April
Venue: MCG
Attendance: 11,327
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Final | |
| Melbourne | 5.3 | 6.5 | 12.7 | 14.8.92 |
| Hawthorn | 3.2 | 8.7 | 10.9 | 16.15.111 |
Hawthorn win by 19 points
Goalkickers: Norm Smith 4, Percy Beames 3, Ron Baggott 1, Ron Barassi 1, Allan La Fontaine 1, Hugh Murnane 1, Lou Reiffel 1, Ray Wartman 1
Milestones:
Nil
Coming off a shock opening day victory over the defending premiers in Geelong, Melbourne welcome Hawthorn to their first home fixture of the year but despite starting red hot favourites they were on the wrong end of an upset loss.
The Mayblooms had traditionally been poor against Melbourne at the MCG, never having won there, and even though they were encouraging in their first hitout of the year they still lost and travelled to the cricket ground expected to suffer another defeat.
Melbourne started slowly and were initially troubled by Hawthorn's pace and wing play, but their opponents were poor in attacking so they didn't take advantage and the Demons kicked five goals to lead by 13 at quarter time. This gap quickly evaporated in the second, and even though Norm Smith was once again potent up front, the defence which had been so good in Geelong a week earlier was leaking goals with ease.
With the margin now 14 points in Hawthorn's favour to start the second half Melbourne kicked the first two goals, but soon conceded them back through their leaky backline. The Demon defence finally started to show some steel, and they held out Hawthorn long enough to get back in front but a 10 point lead was barely adequate considering the visitors would have the wind in the final term.
Both sides attacked at the start of the last quarter, but Melbourne spurned their opportunity to kick an important goal into the wind and allowed Hawthorn to take the lead. They equalised through 19th man Reiffel, and again through Wartman but Hawthorn kicked the last three goals of the afternoon to register a surprise victory.
Best were Smith, Beames and Lock. Buckley suffered an injured knee in the last quarter and was replaced by Reiffel. Lewis tore stomach muscles.
It was the first time since Footscray, Hawthorn, North Melbourne joined the VFL in 1925 that all three teams won a match on the same day.
Seconds
Hawthorn 19.11 d. Melbourne 9.4
Media
Sporting Globe - 30/04/1938
Argus - 02/05/1938
Argus - 04/05/1938
Sporting Globe - 04/05/1938