ASSISTANT coach Dan McPherson says the team hasn’t put a ceiling on how many more wins it wants to achieve by season’s end.
The Demons have notched up six victories this year – their best effort since 2011 – and have the opportunity to achieve their best result since their most recent finals appearance in 2006. Since then, eight wins in both the 2010-11 seasons have been Melbourne’s best.
But McPherson said the rest of the season was simply about “getting our processes right and working on the things that we believe will make us a good team”.
“If we do those well, it gives us a good chance each game we play. The number of games we’ve got left and the number of wins we want to finish with haven’t been mentioned, but it’s about finishing off the year really strongly,” he told Dee TV.
“Last year we finished off quite poorly and the reserves were poor as well, but this year they’ve got the added incentive of playing [VFL] finals footy as well.
“There is a lot of incentive for everyone on the list to continue and finish the year really well. We’d expect to see the boys finish off really strongly.”
McPherson said there were good signs from last Saturday’s win over Collingwood at the MCG.
“It’s been a much more enjoyable start to the week than when you don’t have a win, but we used the same process in terms of reviewing the game. We looked at the things that we can do better and give the guys credit to the things that we did do well,” he said.
“We’re starting to see quite an improvement in our game and we’ve got to reinforce those things and the good habits that we’re starting to get into. Also, we’ve got to work through the things that need improvement.
“It was far from a perfect performance [last round], but I think we’re heading in the right direction.”
McPherson said this Sunday’s clash against North Melbourne at the MCG was another opportunity to build on last round’s work – and the chance to win two in a row for the first time since 2011.
“When we do rock up on Sunday [we want to make sure] we’re in the best nick possible to take on a team that’s playing really well,” he said.
“They’ve (North Melbourne) won the past four in a row and they’re right in the hunt to play finals footy, so they’ll be keen to play really well and continue their good form.
“It’s another really big challenge for us, but we believe if we play the way we have been [playing] – particularly like last weekend – that we’ll be a big chance.”