Trips to Tasmania certainly aren't uncommon for North Melbourne and Hawthorn. They each possess a home away from home in the Apple Isle - for the Kangaroos it's Blundstone Arena in Hobart, for the Hawks it's UTAS Stadium in Launceston.

The nature of the way home games are fixtured between these two sides makes it quite surprising the teams don't play each other all that often in Tasmania. In fact, this weekend will be the first time Hawthorn has ever made the trip to Blundstone Arena.

The only player on the opposition's list with experience of playing at Blundstone is Tom Mitchell, with the onball accumulator travelling to the ground as part of the Sydney side that won by just nine points in 2016. Brent Harvey starred for North on that occasion with three goals.

While the sides haven't clashed at Blundstone before, North will have great memories of last time it took on the Hawks in Tasmania. Last season's Round 9 fixture has lived long in the memory of fans in royal blue and white.

It was a drought-breaking win for North Melbourne and the first of the season. A midfield masterclass from Ben Cunnington, Jy Simpkin and Luke Davies-Uniacke laid the foundation for the victory, with the trio combining for an immense 99 disposals and 38 clearances.

Hawthorn's whole team, for comparison, managed just 28 clearances across the entire game.

Cam Zurhaar was, much like last week against Richmond, at his brilliant best. He led the forward line well with four goals. Taylor Garner showcased the best of his talents upon his return from injury with three majors of his own.

Hawthorn led by over five goals early in the second term, but the Kangaroos rallied to put together a spirited comeback. A third term in which the away side kicked the final four goals set up for a hard-fought final term.

North took the lead early in the final stanza courtesy of a pair of Zurhaar goals, but the Hawks then kicked back through James Cousins and Jack Scrimshaw to re-take the lead.

Taylor Garner and Tarryn Thomas managed to swing momentum back the way of the Roos and continued the final term trend of each side kicking pairs of goals. Luke Breust would kick the final goal of the day for the Hawks, but it was too late. North eventually ran out seven-point victors.

Plenty of parallels can be drawn between last season's victory over Hawthorn and last week's win over Richmond. The pressure release the win provided, the starring roles of Simpkin, Davies-Uniacke and Zurhaar, and the timeliness of the victory.

Interim senior coach Leigh Adams has rewarded last week's victorious side by making no changes to the line-up.

If the Kangaroos can repeat last week's effort and intensity, they'll be putting themselves in a strong position to win two consecutive games for the first time since Round 2, 2020.