The league were able to play out one round before the suspension came into effect with Hawkins’ Geelong Cats falling to the Greater Western Sydney Giants by 32 points at Giants Stadium in Sydney on Saturday.
Final score, GWS 17.3 (105) to Geelong 11.7 (73).
Hawkins went in to the game with no idea the season would be postponed the next day and had himself a strong all-round game.
The key forward came out of the gate to produce 11 disposals (eight kicks and three handballs), six marks, one hit out, three tackles and kicked two goals and two behinds in the shortened 16 minute quarter games.
Hawkins now has to wait for more than two months before the season continues and will now face a proposed 50 per cent pay cut in the months of April and May.
When talking to Triple M radio on Wednesday last week, he said that while the team is aware of the financial decisions, it is never about the money with his side.
“The playing group at Geelong and the people I've spoken to are well aware there will eventually be financial impacts right across the board,” he said.
“Its something that is going to be ever evolving. We love to play not because we get paid, but because we understand the importance of football for our environment and the community.”
Despite spending a long off-season preparing for the 2020 AFL season, Hawkins understands the position that the league has taken.
During last week's interview Hawkins touched on his stance on the situation of whether the AFL should play round one or not.
“We've been training and preparing for the last four months to play football and obviously this is very unique and something we've never seen before.
“If we had the option to play, we would.
“We're no different to the general public, we're sitting and waiting to hear information.
“I voted yes to keep playing, it was just a quick show of hands, we had a great meeting at the Players Association.
“It was really good from a player's point of view because we found out information then what we found out before.”
Hawkins was unavailable to speak to the Southern Riverina News since the league suspension before it went to print yesterday.