Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson says the AFL club has a lot of work to do to justify both the pre-season hype about them and their own expectations.

The Hawks were widely-tipped as a top-four side and premiership contender this season, having overcome a swag of early-season injuries last year to storm into the finals, becoming the most recent side to defeat Collingwood along the way.

But after falling short in Tuesday's 17.15 (117) to 15.8 (98) loss to Geelong at the MCG, despite building an early 26-point lead, Clarkson said they were clearly still well off the pace.

"Despite the hype out there about Hawthorn in the press and the wider footy community, we know internally that we've got a hell of a lot of work to do before we can seriously challenge these top two or three sides," the coach said.

Several Hawthorn big names failed to shine.

Star forward Lance Franklin kicked two goals in the first three minutes as the Hawks surged to a big lead, but added just one more for the match, in the last quarter.

Captain Luke Hodge had just 12 touches, kept quiet by opposing skipper Cameron Ling, while silky-skilled midfielder Shaun Burgoyne had only 14 disposals.

Brad Sewell had a superb first term winning the ball out of the packs, but Cats' stars Joel Selwood and Jimmy Bartel took control in that area to engineer Geelong's second-half surge.

Cats ruckman Brad Ottens was also a major factor, with the Hawks' decision to sub Brent Renouf out of the game midway through the third term, leaving recruit David Hale as a lone hand against Ottens, backfiring.

That move came early in a Geelong burst of six unanswered goals in 12 minutes which turned a 13-point deficit into a 22-point lead.

Paul Chapman, with three crucial goals, 23 touches and 10 tackles, was another Geelong standout, while experienced defenders Matthew Scarlett and Harry Taylor provided enormous rebound after the Hawks' early onslaught.

"We know that at our best we can challenge a lot of good sides in the competition, but to do it consistently we're not quite there yet," Clarkson said.

"Whether that's the manner in which we play or whether it's personnel, we need to try to find that out pretty soon."

Adding to Hawthorn's concerns, they lost gun midfielder Cyril Rioli to a hamstring injury, while skipper Sam Mitchell will be scrutinised for running front-on into the head of Geelong's Steve Johnson, while the Cats' forward was bent over the ball.

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