ASSISTANT coach Dan McPherson says there is no reason why Melbourne can’t win its final home and away match of the season against Greater Western Sydney at Etihad Stadium on Sunday.

Speaking to Dee TV, McPherson said the Demons were determined to finish the year strongly, after a disappointing month.

“It’d be nice to finish the year on a good point or a positive note, but that’ll come only if we do the things that we’ve been talking about all year,” he said.

“We’ve shown that when we do those things and when we follow the game plan, and everyone works for each other, we can be really successful. There is no reason why we can’t beat the Giants on Sunday, but if we play the way that we’ve played for the majority of the last month, then it’s going to be really tough.

“We all know what we need to do – it’s just a matter of going out and actually doing it.”

McPherson said coming back from Perth – after losing to Fremantle at Domain Stadium last Sunday – shouldn’t make a difference this weekend.

“It’s always a bit tough coming back from Perth, but we’ve got seven days, so it’s not a great drama. From all reports, they’ve all pulled up pretty well,” he said.

“I think ‘Chunk’ (Nathan Jones) is going OK, so he’s a chance to play as well and there are a couple of boys who had the week off – Angus [Brayshaw] and Harmesy (James Harmes), who will come back in, so they’ll add a bit of vibrancy back into the team.

“You’d expect a bit of a spike in performance … and they’ve got one more effort to really dig in and have a crack at.

“It’s been a disappointing month that we’ve had and we’ve got one more chance to try and do something about it.”

McPherson said the players will have their exit interviews and medical screenings next week, before heading on their off-season break.

“They’ll have a chat with [elite performance manager] Misso (Dave Misson) and the sports conditioning guys about a bit of a program over the break – just to keep themselves ticking over,” he said.

“Then they have their exit interviews with us to summarise their year and what’s happening moving forward for them individually.

“Then for us from a coaching point of view, it’s about putting things in place for the pre-season … and then we all get a bit of a break.”