MIDFIELDER Bernie Vince says Melbourne’s NAB Challenge form has been encouraging, as the club looks towards the home and away season.

Melbourne defeated Port Adelaide by 19 points last week in its first competitive hitout for 2016.

Vince, who joins captain Nathan Jones in returning to Melbourne’s senior team for this week’s game against the Western Bulldogs, said it was an exciting time around the club.

“I know all teams say they’re the fittest they’ve been and it’s a really exciting time of year but I think in our group it’s actually really exciting,” Vince said.

“I’ve been around for a long time and the group and the standards have lifted and the training’s lifted.

“It was great to play an opposition side – you can only do so much training against yourself – and to get a bit of reward for what we’ve been working on, on the weekend was great.”

Melbourne came back from five goals down to overrun Port Adelaide in the second half of last week’s game, with the team’s pressure and competitiveness a feature of its game.

Vince said while capitalising on a winning position was important, he was particularly pleased with Melbourne’s work to play the game on its own terms.

“I know it’s only round one of NAB Challenge but [we’re happy] moreso with the way we played,” Vince said.

“That’s the way we want to play and even if we hadn’t won on the weekend, we were impressed with how the boys went about it.

“That’s the most important thing – to play the way we want to play, and if we do that, the wins will take care of themselves.”

Meanwhile, Vince said the presence of fellow South Australian Jack Trengove in main training had “been great for the group”.

Trengove, who played his most recent AFL game in round two, 2014, is working towards making his return towards competitive football.

“He’s a great bloke to have around the club and he’s been back in full training for a couple of weeks,” Vince said.

“Because he’s missed so much, they want to give him a solid five or six week training block and then hopefully we’ll see him come back through the VFL.

“Then if he gets some form back, I can see him playing pretty early on in the season which is exciting not just for the group but for him personally.”

Having come off one of his best years to date, Vince, who is entering his 11^th AFL pre-season, said he was determined to be a part of success in the latter stage of his career.

“I haven’t got much time left in my footy career and I’m not just here to finish… down the bottom, I want to get up and have some success as well,” he said.

“There’s a whole number of players in our group that want to fast track our time to have some success.”