HAWTHORN coach Alastair Clarkson says that when it comes to footy, he's a believer in recent history, not ancient history.

The Hawks go into Friday night's clash with Geelong knowing they've beaten the Cats the last three times they've played them.

But the last win was in round four, 2007, and since then, the Cats have lost three times.

In 37 matches. And won a grand final by a record 119 points.

Which is why Clarkson isn't getting carried away with the head-to-head record.

"It's just like every week, you look at the opposition – we don't take too much too much consideration into too much past history, apart from the previous two or three weeks," he said on Thursday.

"And obviously, you don't play sides two or three weeks prior. So much changes in terms of personnel and who's available on any given week, so we've pretty much focused on their last couple of games, particularly the Bulldogs game last week, as being their current line of form."

Clarkson said the only thing they could take out of the history was that it was possible to beat the Cats.

"Probably just the confidence to know that they can be defeated, and the previous year we beat them twice," he said.

"But it's such a long period of time ago, that their side has changed quite a bit, and their confidence levels are a lot greater than what they were 18 months or two years ago.

"And our side's changed a fair bit in terms of personnel and the way we go about things too.

"So we won't be drawing too much from the last time that we played them except the fact that we know that they can be defeated."

And Clarkson admitted it was a tough ask going up against a team that was so consistent.

"It's a significant challenge, because they've been on top of the ladder of such a long period of time now, and they're a great opponent.

"But funnily enough, it's no bigger challenge than the challenge of trying to get over St Kilda last week, which we were unable to do, or the week before against Sydney.

"Every team's got their strengths and weaknesses, it's just unfortunate that the Cats have got fewer weaknesses than we'd like."