PLENTY has changed since an 18-year-old Jordan Lewis made his AFL debut more than a decade ago.

Essendon was the side Lewis debuted against, in Round 3 of 2005, his first season at AFL level. 

It was a match the Bombers held on to win by just two points, after leading by five goals at the major break.

Alastair Clarkson was in charge of the Hawks side for the third time, a developing team that featured Lewis alongside the likes of fellow first-year players Jarryd Roughead (also on debut), now-Swan Lance Franklin, and fourth-year players Luke Hodge and Sam Mitchell.

A 50-metre goal to Hodge with just under five minutes on the clock closed the margin to two points, but neither side could add to the scoreboard after that, with Mitchell driving the Hawks forward as the siren sounded and Essendon holding on for a 77-75 triumph. 

Hodge, Mitchell, Roughead and Lewis are the only players who played in that game still running around for the Hawks.

It was Essendon's 10th consecutive win against the Hawks - but a turning point after the Bombers' 74-point win in the now infamous 'Line in the Sand' match between the two clubs the year before.

Plenty has changed since, but some things have stayed the same.

Rivals Hawthorn and Essendon have a habit of featuring in tight, hard-fought matches – a theme which shows no signs of stopping soon.

Since Lewis debuted, the clubs have faced off 16 times, with eight of those matches decided by three kicks or less.

He said tight games with the Bombers had almost become an expectation.

“I suppose the only memories you have are the recent ones,” he said.

“We’ve had some really good battles with Essendon – early last year we won by a small margin and early this year they won by a small margin.”

Essendon’s side in the mid-2000s featured a bevy of stars – players such as now Bombers Coach James Hird and spearhead Matthew Lloyd.

“I remember coming up against Essendon early in my career, and you’re playing against players like Jason Johnson, Mark Johnson, James Hird and Matthew Lloyd,” he said.

“They were players you looked up to as a kid because they were a successful side.”

When the sides met for the second time in 2005, the Hawks turned the tables, beating the Bombers by 13 points.

It was a similar story in 2006, when the Hawks held off the Bombers by a solitary point in Round 5, and got up by three goals in Round 20.

A combined six points has separated the clubs in their two most recent meetings – and Lewis said there was plenty of motivation to beat the Bombers on Saturday. 

“Certainly when you come up against a side that you've played this year and they've beaten you, you want to even the ledger, there's no doubt about that," he said.

Another two seconds in the clubs’ Round 2 clash would have seen Luke Breust’s goal increase and notch up count and a Hawks victory.

But Lewis said the Hawks knew they would need to put together a better four-quarter performance against the Bombers this time around.

“We’re looking to go out there and try to play the way we want to play, we understand that they made it hard for us last time to play that way,” he said.

“We’ve got to stick to what we know best and hopefully that works.”