The Cats, who are fourth on the ladder, lost to Port Adelaide in round six, scraped past Richmond in round seven, had a bye the following weekend, then lost to Fremantle in round nine.
It means they have just a four-point break over seventh-placed North Melbourne, who they play at Simonds Stadium on Friday night.
"We feel that we haven't been playing our best footy," Hawkins said on Wednesday afternoon.
"We're always, as a club, looking to improve whether we win or lose. So it is a big test for us."
The fixture has dealt Geelong a tough hand, with the Cats having just a six-day break to recover from last weekend's clash with the Dockers in Perth.
"It's a big trip and … it probably doesn't make it easy, but we've got a routine that we think works really well for us," Hawkins said.
"We've had our main training session today, have trained really strongly, and the squad looks ready to go.
"So we've recovered well, and so far we seem to be preparing pretty well for the game (against North Melbourne).
"We're excited for the game, excited for the test. It's a big three- or four-week block for us coming off the bye, so we're looking forward to it.
"They're a hard-running side, they're exciting to watch, so we're going to need to be at our best to get over the top of them."
Hawkins expects to resume his rivalry with the Roos' All Australian defender Scott Thompson on Friday night.
And the Cats should be able to stretch the North backline, considering Nathan Grima has been ruled out with a foot injury.
However, Geelong's scoring has been down in recent weeks, with the Cats kicking only 29 goals in their past three matches.
"I think we've been really poor at kicking for goal," Hawkins said. "We haven't finished off our work.
"I think at times we can get a little bit lazy with our execution. It's something that we probably haven't done too well in the last five or six weeks, so it's something that we need to improve on."
Ruckman Hamish McIntosh, who will take on his former club for the first time this weekend, has own take on Geelong's scoring woes.
"I don't think it's too much of an issue," he told CatsTV. "I just think this year a lot of teams are putting more emphasis on their defensive side of the game.
"So if you look all over the competition, it's a lot harder to score this year."
Twitter: @AFL_AdamMcNicol
