Pulling the brown and gold jumper on for the first time on Friday night, Ty Vickery put in a performance that has likely left fans confident he can excel in an important role for the Hawks.

The former Tiger exhibited some deft ruckwork as well as showing some dangerous signs up forward, a factor that can only benefit teammates Jarryd Roughead and Jack Gunston.  

Vickery finished with ten touches, seven hit-outs and two tackles in his first AFL match at UTAS Stadium.

"I found a bit of [the ball]. I just couldn’t quite finish off on a couple of my marks that I think I would normally take but I was able to dish it off and bring others into the game which was nice.

"It was good to blow the cobwebs out and play against some opposition and not just amongst ourselves," the 26-year old said after the match.

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After an explosive first half that brought about a 41-point lead at half-time, the Hawks faltered in the third quarter to concede nine Geelong goals to their two.

Hawthorn was ultimately able to hold off a gallant Geelong after some dying-moment heroics from young midfielder Kade Stewart.

"We had some pretty good patches of play I thought. But then obviously there were some lapses in the third quarter, so there's some things to improve on," Vickery said.