HAWTHORN coach Alastair Clarkson is confident his side's63-point win over Essendon has signalled the end of a poor patch of football.

Clarkson applauded the Hawks' increase in "intensityand spirit" on Sunday after a pair of losses that were below the standardthe side set earlier in the year.

"It's a long, hard season. Every club in thecompetition has a little period of time where they just don't play as well asthey would have liked and we got what we deserved in the last couple ofweeks," he said.

"We didn't play well enough. We played two pretty goodopponents in the Kangaroos and St Kilda in the past two weeks, and we hadanother good opponent today in Essendon.

"They beat Adelaidelast week, and it was a stellar performance by them. They knew they had to wintoday to maintain their spot in the eight, so we knew it was going to be onearly, and that's what we were pleased with [to be able to survive that].

"Our intensity and spirit in our game was a little bitbetter than it had been in the last couple of weeks.

"Every side goes through [a slump] at some point intime in the year. We're just hoping our little lull is behind us now and we canmove on to the Brisbane Lions next week with a good confidence-boostingwin."

Clarkson said there were many positives in Sunday's win,including the way Trent Croad and Campbell Brown were able to reduce theeffectiveness of the Bombers' big forwards.

"We've been in a little bit of a trough in the pastcouple of weeks. We haven't played particularly well, and at different stagestoday there were signs that we really got our run, our energy and our zip backinto our game," he said.

"It was really pleasing. We had a lot of inside-50s andperhaps didn't convert as many opportunities as we could have, but to restrictto Essendon to the limited amount of inside-50s that they had was going to becrucial to the outcome of the game.

"[Matthew] Lloyd and [Scott] Lucas are outstandingforwards and have been for over a decade. I think they're the second-best teamin the competition at converting opportunities if they get it inside 50.

"Unless you win the midfield battle, you're going to bein real trouble against the Bombers. I think we won that battle today."

While refusing to look too far ahead, Clarkson said theHawks remain in control of their own destiny.

"Every win is important, but we've just got to wait andsee," he said.

"We've got a tough four weeks to go, we've got the Brisbane Lions next weekand they're perhaps the form side of the competition at the minute.

"They've been in outstanding form and they've got abloke that has kicked 30 goals over the last five games.

"They're a pretty formidable opponent, and we play themon our home deck next week and most likely it will be a very entertaining game,so we're looking forward to that."