WITH three weeks remaining in the 2022 AFL season, Melbourne remains in the hunt for the ultimate glory.

And that is an opportunity that excites its senior coach, Simon Goodwin.

The Demons, like all top-four sides, were going to be required to win three games in a row in September to take home the premiership, and despite that equation being pushed back a week after their loss to Sydney, the challenge hasn’t changed.

If anything, Goodwin is more inspired about what’s to come, given the lessons his side was dealt last Friday night.

“It was everything I thought finals was going to be this year – how tight it was going to be,” Goodwin said on Fox Footy’s AFL360.

“It’s how the season's played out.

“Pretty much when you review the game, you’re not that far away.

“You know your best is good enough, but we need to execute it for longer, we need to do the basics better for longer.

“Sydney were outstanding on the night.

The Dees were in the hunt for the majority of the Qualifying Final, but a goalless last term saw Sydney claim a 22-point victory.

This raised some external concerns around Melbourne’s ability to score, but Goodwin hasn’t been alarmed.

“The last six weeks our forward line has actually operated probably the best it has for the whole year,” he said.

“On the weekend we probably didn’t maximise the opportunities as we would’ve liked, but that’s linked to a whole range of things: the types of turnovers you get, your ball movement.

“It’s a consistent theme for us that when we start to struggle in some games our forward line can have some trouble scoring at times.

“But that’s not what we focus on the most in our game. We focus on our contest, our pressure, our defence and we get our offensive opportunities on the back of that.”

Like any week of the season, Goodwin and the coaching staff will review Melbourne’s last match heavily and consider the best approach heading into the Semi-Final.

But internally, there is enormous belief in the players forward of centre.

“We’ve got one of the best groups of forwards that creates defensive pressure and intensity that you need throughout the game,” Goodwin said.

“We’re happy with the mix, but will we make some change? We’ll asses that as the week goes on.

“We’re having a good look at what our best mix looks like and how we’ll perform on the weekend.”