Such a notion is unlikely to pop into Alastair Clarkson's head too often just yet.

But the concept that you can be too good, too early was worth Leigh Matthews pondering while commentating the game on Channel Seven.

"Strangely, from Hawthorn's point of view, you don't want to be too good, too early and just think it's automatically happen," said Matthews, the four-time premiership coach.

"That's the one bad side. If I was Hawthorn, I would want to be winning by four or five goals," he said.

"I don't want to have a first-round thrashing ... just want to make sure we all know it's not going to be cakewalk-type football."

Challenged by fellow commentators, the legend admitted that if that was the Hawks' only issue at this stage of the season then things could be worse, yet maintained: "what I'm saying is the principle - when you're coming off a premiership, sometimes it's not really healthy for the side to be so dominant in your first hit-out the following season."

He never referred to his time at Brisbane, but his comments sparked memories of his Lions' quest for an historic fourth straight premiership in 2004.

While Matthews' team did not smash their opposition in round one of that year (they beat Sydney by two points), they did enjoy a strong start to the point where, about halfway through, Brisbane looked unbeatable.

In fact, as far as the general public were concerned, you could have stopped the season after round 12 that year and handed the flag to the Lions. They were going to do it again, it was inevitable.

Having knocked over Port Adelaide the week before (the team that would eventually finish the season on top) by 37 points, Brisbane obliterated Essendon by 66 points in round 12, kicking 25.12 in the Etihad Stadium annihilation of a team not unlike the Geelong of now.

The Bombers, like the Cats, had been a "super team" of the period - not as successful as Geelong through 2007-14 but their 2000 season was remarkable and, like the Cats to Hawthorn in 2008, had lost a grand final they were expected to win against the Lions in 2001.

It was noteworthy, too, that Jonathan Brown - the champion centre half-forward of the Lions triple premiership teams - used these phrases when describing Hawthorn on Monday night.

"They are as close to perfection as you actually get," he said on Fox Footy's On The Couch.

"They have got hardly any injuries. Grant Birchall will come back into their side ... it's almost too perfect."

The Hawks' Brisbane-like dominance, although performed in a less brutal but no less damaging fashion, seemed to flow naturally into an old debate: where does this Hawthorn team, spanning from 2008 to now, sit in comparison to the Lions of 2001-2004.

Brown's candid answer, more candid than most ex-Brisbane players or coaches have been on this topic, was a reflection of just how complete the Hawks looked on Monday.

"They are right up there, and if they go in and win a premiership this year you would nearly put them, certainly equal with Brisbane and [they] nearly goes past them if they win three in a row," Brown said.

"That would be four over the last [eight] years. They've just got great players on every line, they've complemented their back line, they've finished off the last piece with James Frawley coming in."

A similar debate was at its highest midway through 2004 when the Lions, having already conquered the three-peat, were being compared to the great Hawthorn teams that won five premierships between 1983 and 1991.

A common conclusion was that, if the Lions were to win four in a row, then they would have to be considered the best.

The Lions went on to lose the grand final to Port Adelaide that season, and of course Hawthorn supporters will be hoping history doesn't repeat itself in that respect. And who can really see beating them at this point, anyway?

But if some fans are worried about whether the Hawks can sustain such a high level - or at least make sure they can produce it when it counts most in five months - then listening to Sam Mitchell on Monday night would have eased some fears.

As measured as always, the Hawks' key play-maker went out of his way to play down the hype - a good sign that the leaders are determined not to get ahead of themselves – but offered something more to convince the brown and gold faithful that the players knew how hard it was going to be to stay ahead of the pack this season.

"What we learnt out of 2009 [backing up from the 2008 premiership] is that if you play exactly as well as premiers the next year, you'll finish fifth or sixth because everyone else goes up a level," Mitchell said on Footy Classified.

"Perhaps because we were a younger group [back in 2009] we weren't as ready for success," he said.

"As a whole group, the players were young, the coaches were young, we probably weren't quite prepared. We didn't know what to do with it.

"We needed to keep driving standards onwards and upwards, not just sustain what we already had."

On Monday's evidence, it seems the standards are higher than ever at Hawthorn. The challenge will be to keep them there.