A TOM Hawkins set shot after the siren has given Geelong an extraordinary two-point win over Hawthorn at the MCG on Friday night.

Geelong's 18.10 (118) to 17.14 (116) victory came after the Cats led by as many as 51 points during the second quarter before relinquishing the lead late in the final term.

Geelong has now beaten Hawthorn in all nine meetings between the teams since the 2008 Grand Final.

Remarkably, Geelong's victory was its second two-point win over the Hawks this year, the other coming in round two. Seven of the nine consecutive wins have been by nine points or less.

Having worked its way back into Friday night's match from a seemingly hopeless position, a Brad Sewell snap put the Hawks in front with seven minutes remaining.

But as it has done so many times during its winning steak over Hawthorn, Geelong refused to lie down.

Hawkins kicked his fifth goal of the night with three minutes to play to bring the Cats to within two points, setting the stage for a grandstand finish.

After a pair of Hawthorn behinds, Cats' captain and best afield Joel Selwood marked in front of Sewell in the middle of the ground with seconds remaining, played on and found Hawkins on the lead 55 metres out.

The big forward's set shot was never in doubt, sailing through as the siren sounded for his sixth goal of the night.

Geelong coach Chris Scott said he felt good about Hawkins having the ball in his hands at the death.

"He was kicking well all night, so we were pretty confident," Scott said.

Earlier, with stars Selwood, Paul Chapman and Steve Johnson on fire, the Cats piled on nine first quarter goals to two.

They out-hunted and out-tackled their opposition in close, kicking their highest-ever first quarter score of 9.3 (57) against the brown and gold in the 150th match between the teams.

The Hawks then responded with equal vigour in the second.

Spurred by team-lifting defensive acts by Luke Breust (a chase-down tackle) and Ben Stratton (a desperate smother), and a big hit on Chapman by Brent Guerra, they booted five goals to one for the quarter to cut the half-time margin to 17 points.

Alastair Clarkson's men kept pressing and, when Jack Gunston and then Brendan Whitecross converted long set shots midway through the final quarter, the scores were level and the Hawks seemingly had all of the momentum.

Sewell's snap looked to have won them the match, but the Cats once again found a way to be in front at the final siren.

Alongside Hawkins, Chapman kicked four goals for the winners, including three in the blistering first quarter.

Selwood was outstanding through the middle of the ground from start to finish, and Johnson was at his creative best.

Ruckman Orren Stephenson played the best game of his short career, and defenders Harry Taylor and Tom Lonergan were solid down back.

Stars Sam Mitchell and Cyril Rioli were among Hawthorn's best, while the impressive Gunston finished with four goals.

Shaun Burgoyne was another important contributor in the fightback.

Not only did the loss continue Hawthorn's run of incredible heartbreak against the Cats, it also snapped an eight-game winning streak.

But Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson took some heart from the result.

"We were pleased with the resilience of our group that we fought back and got ourselves back into the contest," he said.

"From that position we probably should have won the game, but we just lacked a little bit of composure in the last part of the game."

Geelong has now won three games in a row and is back within touching distance of the top four.

HAWTHORN    2.0    7.6    11.8    17.14 (116)
GEELONG        9.3    10.5   14.9   18.10 (118)
 
GOALS
Hawthorn: Gunston 4, Breust 2, Burgoyne 2, Puopolo 2, Rioli 2, Hale, Lewis, Roughead, Sewell, Whitecross
Geelong: Hawkins 6, Chapman 4, Duncan 2, Johnson 2, Christensen, Mackie, Walker, Podsiadly

BEST
Hawthorn: Mitchell, Rioli, Stratton, Gunston, Breust, Burgoyne, Hale, Sewell
Geelong: Hawkins, Johnson, Selwood, Kelly, Stephenson, Chapman, Lonergan, Taylor

INJURIES
Hawthorn: Bailey (illness) replaced in the selected side by Savage
Geelong: Hunt (quad)
 
SUBSTITUTES
Hawthorn: Shane Savage replaced Luke Hodge at three-quarter time
Geelong: Steven Motlop replaced Josh Hunt (quad) during the third quarter
 
Reports: Nil
 
Umpires: McBurney, Rosebury, Nicholls
 
Official crowd: 65,287 at the MCG

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the club.