An unusual sort of AFL history has been made with snow falling on Manuka Oval during Hawthorn's 56-point win over GWS.

Midway through the first quarter on a freezing cold Friday night in Canberra, the forecast snow arrived and became increasingly heavy as the first half wore on.

It is believed to be the first time it has snowed during an AFL game.

The Canberra locals came prepared for the conditions. ( AAP: Lukas Coch )

Players had to resort to extreme measures to stay warm, including wearing electric blankets on the bench, dipping their hands in buckets of hot water and drinking cups of tea.

The extreme weather posed a challenge to Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson's idiosyncratic rule that no player in his team can wear long sleeve jerseys — several Giants wisely opted to forgo the traditional singlets.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, the temperature fell to 2.7 degrees when the second quarter began.

Loading...

Hawthorn won 13.7 (85) to 4.5. (29) and are now responsible for the Giants' two lowest scores this season, and their two lowest in history.

The Hawks kept GWS to 38 points in round eight and 31 points in the club's inaugural year in 2012.

The Giants only kicked one goal in the second half and had a single inside 50 all night as the Hawks sizzled in freezing conditions.

Players had to come up with interesting ways to stay warm. ( AAP: Lukas Coch )

There were 11,741 fans who braved the cold and witnessed the historic storm, which didn't catch the locals off guard as some in the stands sported ski goggles.

Snow never blanketed the ground like the famous NRL game in Canberra between the Raiders and Wests Tigers in 2000, but there were sizeable flakes falling.

Loading...

The Hawks dominated the opening exchanges of each quarter and kicked the first three goals in every term to dent the Giants top-four aspirations.

Hawthorn shared the goals with Tim O'Brien, Luke Breust, Mitchell Lewis and Paul Paupolo all bagging doubles, while Sicily led their disposals with 33.

Coleman Medal leader Jeremy Cameron was quiet on return and booted one goal, but Toby Greene managed a game-high 38 disposals.

AFL ladder

Loading...

ABC/AAP