COACH Todd Viney has not given up the possibility of his team making this year’s finals.

Although the Demons have lost their past three matches to Hawthorn, Geelong and Carlton respectively, Viney says the club has not dismissed the thought of making the final eight.

“We’re still in this competition to win as many games as we can, and we know that mathematically we’re still in with a chance,” he said.

“So we’re attacking this game, and we want to win.

“It’s an important game. We were really poor against West Coast earlier in the year, so we’d like to play our best footy.

“If we play our best footy, we’ll be around the mark.”

Viney, who made his senior coaching debut against the Blues, indicated a range of emotions were felt once he took over from Dean Bailey last week.

“It was certainly a really tough week last week - I presume it’s going to get easier - 76 points is not the result I would’ve liked,” he said.

“But if we break that down and take out the second quarter, then I thought for three quarters we were pretty good and in the game and there were a lot of positives.”

With Viney holding the fort until Melbourne appoints a new coach for 2012 and beyond, the club great said the incoming coach will inherit an exciting young list.

“The coach who comes in will be very lucky. We’ve got a fantastic group of players, with extraordinary talent, and so the coach who can bring that to the fore is what we’re looking for,” he said.

“There are going to be numerous candidates.”

Meanwhile, Viney said youngster Luke Tapscott should be right to play this round.

“[It’s] not concussion - he didn’t lose consciousness or anything - it was more his neck that we were worried about.”

“He got carried off on a stretcher because of his neck. So from my understanding, there were no concussion issues, as long as his neck’s all right, which I believe it is, so he should be up for selection.”