HAWTHORN forward Michael Osborne says a change in attitude has been responsible for his side's remarkable turnaround after a horror start to the season.

The Hawks' season appeared a write-off six weeks ago, with the 2008 premiers sitting 14th on the AFL ladder with a 1-6 record.

However, they have gone on to win six straight matches, with Friday night’s 16-point win over Essendon lifting them into the top eight.

“The boys have really dug deep over the last six weeks and I think the attitude going into those games has been remarkable,” Osborne told BigPond Sports Weekend on Saturday.

“We’ve come off with some good wins, and a couple of close ones where we’ve been good enough to hang in there until the end of the game.

“The attitude of the boys had been under par for the start of the season and [we were] losing games that we think we should have won. 

“I think that’s turned around for us.”

Osborne, who had 24 possessions and kicked an important final-quarter goal on Friday night, said the Hawks set themselves to play “harder football” after starting the season with a poor attitude. 

“A few individual efforts out there were unacceptable [and] not part of the Hawthorn trademark, so the boys were questioned and we came up with what was acceptable and the efforts we needed out on the field to win,” he said.

“Coming off the back of last year, not getting the results that we’re used to and that we wanted, it gets on top of you and you stop putting in so much of an effort.

“If everyone’s doing that, it gets too much and you end up putting out sub-par performances.

“We addressed that and we wanted to play harder football, win more hard ball and just be better in close and around the footy.”

Hawthorn faces a tough month of football after its week off, with clashes against the Western Bulldogs, Geelong, the Brisbane Lions and St Kilda set to put the Hawks’ top-eight spot on the line.

“We’ve got some real big games and hopefully we can keep this run of wins up,” Osborne said.

“We want to stay in the eight and be really competitive for the rest of the season.”