FOOTY fans can expect another classic battle between Hawthorn and Geelong on Tuesday with the winner likely to be hailed as the genuine challenger to premier Collingwood but Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson says it's a title his team is not yet worthy of.

The Hawks sit 3-1 so far this season, and an incredible second half display against Melbourne in round two saw them return to the form that captured their 10th flag in 2008 and also prompted Melbourne skipper Brad Green to declare the Hawks genuine premiership contenders.

The Hawks have since beaten Richmond and narrowly escaped with a win last week over big improvers West Coast.

Geelong on the other hand has boasted wins over St Kilda, Fremantle and the Sydney Swans and will head into Tuesday's clash with an unblemished record.

While the Hawks are the last side to have defeated the Pies with a three-point win in round 22 last season, Clarkson says if any side is ready to be declared Collingwood's challenger, it's Geelong.

"We haven’t played anywhere near the top footy that even warrants us being second billing to Collingwood at this point in time," Clarkson said at Waverley Park on Monday morning.

"We played a couple of good quarters against Adelaide and then fell away, one decent quarter against Melbourne, a good first quarter against Richmond and a good 10 minutes in the start of the last quarter against West Coast. So that doesn't warrant being a real challenger to Collingwood at the present time.

"We've got a lot of work to make up and I think the Cats are a little bit the same but they've probably got a greater chance of putting their hand up for it at this point in time, rather than us."

The rivalry between Hawthorn and Geelong dates back over 20 years with many close games including the epic grand final, with just six-points separating the sides in 1989.

Since the Hawks' premiership win over the Cats in 2008, Clarkson's men have been unable to come away with a win with all four encounters since then decided by a margin under 10 points.

The battle between the two midfields at the MCG on Tuesday will be watched with interest with the likes of Brownlow medallist Jimmy Bartel, and Joel Selwood going head-to-head against Hawk skipper Luke Hodge and the in-form Sam Mitchell.

Despite losing Gary Ablett to Gold Coast, Clarkson said Geelong's midfield was still a formidable unit with outstanding depth.

Clarkson predicted the game would be won or lost in the centre, and has thrown down the challenge to his midfielders to match the Cats in that area.

"Their midfield is still the strongest part of their game," Clarkson said.

"They've got some many blokes that can go through there. They've even increased that a little bit more this year with Steve Johnson going in there more and [David] Wojcinski mixing it up between playing half forward and wing.

"[They're midfield] is going to be the area where they will win the game if they get on top of us tomorrow. If we can match them in that area, then we give ourselves a good chance to win."

Clarkson has gone with an unchanged line up to the side that beat West Coast, resisting the temptation to bring in premiership defender Tom Murphy and versatile talls Riley Milne and Jordan Lisle to combat Geelong forwards Tom Hawkins, Cameron Mooney and James Podsiadly.

The Eagles tried to exploit the Hawks' lack of height in defence last week with Quentin Lynch, Josh Kennedy, Nic Naitanui and Dean Cox all going forward.

But the Hawthorn defenders held their own for the majority of the game, and Clarkson has backed them to do the same against Geelong.

"Up until the 28 minute mark of the last quarter, West Coast had kicked six goals, so I think we’ve defended really well in that regard," he said.

"We back our back end to be able to compete really well. Gibson, Gilham, Hodge have played a lot of footy together and we think they're more than capable of being competitive down there and [being able to] rebound the ball out."