HAWTHORN equalled its best winning streak on Sunday afternoon but the club already has one eye on burying a more recent record next weekend.

In beating the Lions by 58 points at Aurora Stadium, Hawthorn won its 12th consecutive game, matching the feat of the club's premiership-winning 1961 outfit.

But to create a new mark, the Hawks need to overcome Geelong next Saturday – something they haven't done since famously upsetting the Cats in the 2008 Grand Final. The losing streak currently stands at 10 games.

Aware of the inevitable hype that will brew ahead of the MCG encounter, Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson admitted it would be nice for his side to finally get a win over the Cats in what will be a clash between the league's two top sides.

"They're always crackers of games against Geelong," he said.

"We've got a nice, healthy rivalry there and rivalries are all built around Grand Finals, and big finals in a sense, and that's why these two clubs have been good clubs for a fair period of time now and have produced some really good contests.

"We're about due to win one though. They've knocked us off a fair bit the last little while so it would be nice to get one this time."

Despite injury clouds hanging over Xavier Ellis (calf) and Liam Shiels (ankle) following Sunday's victory, Clarkson suggested it wouldn't be all doom and gloom at the selection table this week.

Livewire forward Cyril Rioli could return after a long lay-off while small forward Paul Puopolo and No.1 ruckman Max Bailey are likely to come back and strengthen the Hawks' line-up.

"Cyril will be a big chance to play next week, we've just got to determine where that is," Clarkson said.

"We've chosen to get a mini pre-season into him so he's ready to go and he'll play some footy next week. We just need to determine whether that's at VFL or AFL level."

Regardless of the exact makeup of the side, Clarkson said his Hawks would be primed for a potentially historic night.

"That's just footy, you've got sore blokes every week," he said.

"The Cats will have sore blokes from last night's game against Fremantle, too, so we'll take that into consideration at training this week, but we'll be ready to go next Saturday night."