Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson says the Hawks are nowhere near their best despite having resurrected their season over the past five weeks.

After a six-game losing streak, Hawthorn have strung together five consecutive wins to get into the AFL's top eight.

But Clarkson says there is a lot of work to be done before they can be considered flag contenders.

"We have been playing a little bit better but still nowhere near what we think we are capable of," Clarkson said.

"That's exciting in one sense that we still think we've got some upside.

"Perhaps a little bit disappointing we still can't really get our best footy together, but there are certainly some signs over the last three or four weeks with really good victories against Carlton and Adelaide and grinding sort of victories against two pretty desperate sides in Port Adelaide and Sydney.

"We are on the right track but we'd still like to think we can play a little bit better than what we are at the present time."

The Hawks suffered a 43-point loss to Essendon when they last met in round six, but are now favourites for the clash at the MCG tomorrow night.

"We need to improve on our last performance against Essendon," Clarkson said.

"We were really disappointing that night.

"We have been a lot better since then so it will be a really good test of where we've come from over the last five or six weeks to see how we go tomorrow night."

After their six straight losses, Hawthorn conducted an intensive review of their approach and it has resulted in a five-game winning streak.

"We were in a little bit of a rut and when you're not playing good footy your confidence levels drop," Clarkson said.

"Probably what we addressed six weeks ago was just making sure we got our process right.

"There were just some things in the way we were playing that we needed to do a lot better.

"That was something to do with our stoppage structures and something to do with our intensity around the football and tackling and winning the hard ball."

Subtle changes to their rotations in a bid to keep players a little fresher had also helped, he said.

"But by and large the main difference with our side is just starting to get some continuity with some of our players playing week to week," he said.

"They had a pretty disrupted early part of the season but with (Shaun) Burgoyne and (Wayde) Skipper, it's no coincidence that they've played the last five games and we've had five victories and they are important players for our structure.

"Some of it is just simple personnel and getting them back into the side but there's been a couple of tweaks that we've needed to make to make our side play a little bit better."

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