Last year’s fiery encounter between North and Hawthorn has been a talking point this week and it could be repeated on Friday night.

Hawks’ coach Alastair Clarkson wants his men to remain unsociable, but within the rules.

Last time the sides met, Luke Hodge was handed a three-week ban for elbowing Andrew Swallow while Jordan Lewis copped two-weeks for taking out Todd Goldstein.

While Clarkson insists he wasn’t impressed by those acts, he still wants to see a physical game.

"If we think we're going to win the game of footy against the Kangaroos tomorrow night playing that way ... those two incidents were in isolation and certainly not the way we want to play our footy," he said.

"I'm not certain 'belted up' is a good term - there were two incidents that were undisciplined by our leaders, in terms of Hodge and Lewis.

"We're not too happy with our players playing like that.

"So 'belting up' is just a term - the game was played in a physical manner outside of two incidents that were outside the rules of the game and were penalised."

Hawthorn is in fifth spot on the ladder with a 3-3 record against top eight sides, playing without Luke Hodge and Jarryd Roughead.

"That record probably stacks up with most in the competition," he said.

"North have only lost twice, but they haven't played the same amount of sides in the eight as ... some of the others.

"It's a little like the top tennis players in the world playing each other - it's not six-zip, it's usually 4-2 or 3-3.

"You just want to make sure it is six-zip when you're coming through finals and that's pretty hard to do too."