UNDERFIRE Hawthorn captain Ben Stratton is a repeat offender when it comes to pinching, with Melbourne forward Jake Melksham admitting the lockdown defender has targeted him in a similar manner previously.

Stratton has caused furore for his conduct in Hawthorn's Friday night loss to Essendon, not only for pinching Bombers speedster Orazio Fantasia but also for a stomp on Shaun McKernan.

Both incidents have been referred directly to the Tribunal and Stratton's punishment will be decided on Tuesday evening.

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It's not the first time the 30-year-old has resorted to pinching, as Melksham told The Oval Office on Channel Nine.

"I've played on Ben a few times and he's gave me a few pinches funnily enough," Melksham said.

"He's done it before. I think this is something that he might do every now and then."

The Demon didn't take too kindly to the unsavoury treatment.

"Obviously at the time, he's done it and I'm thinking 'What's that?'," Melksham said.

"But I reacted in a bit more of an angry way, much like Orazio did in the footage, but for whatever reason, (Stratton) didn't pursue it the way he did with Orazio."

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While Melksham doesn't necessarily have an issue with pinching, he felt it was the number of times the Hawks skipper did it to Fantasia that caused a stir.

"I think a pinch here and there's OK," Melksham said.

"He pushed the boundary with Orazio, definitely, by doing it too much and it created attention.

"As I said, he’s probably done it before, he's done it to me, he could've got away with it if he'd done it two or three times, but he's probably gone over the top a little bit."