KEY forward/ruckman Jack Fitzpatrick says he will gain plenty of confidence from his best AFL match yet, after he booted two goals and impressed up forward in Melbourne’s nail biting three-point win against the Western Bulldogs at the MCG on Saturday night.

Fitzpatrick, who played his seventh AFL match, said the ability to play a handful of matches together had helped him build his belief.

“It was good. Personally, I’ve played four games in a row now, which is the most I’ve played at this level,” he told melbournefc.com.au.

“The more you play, the more confident you get. Also what helped was playing on a couple of players I’ve played on at VFL level – and I’ve played quite well.

“You get your confidence up and the ball came inside 50 a lot more, so we were able to make the most of it.”

Fitzpatrick said Melbourne’s ability to just hang on for victory – after it led by 44 points at the 13-minute mark of the final term – was similar to a match he played in for Casey against Port Melbourne earlier this year.

“We were up by four goals at three quarter-time [in that match against Port Melbourne], but when another team gets momentum, it’s very hard to stop,” he said.

“We were like that in the first couple of quarters. We put some numbers behind the ball and Wattsy (Jack Watts) took a good mark. We just tried to arrest control and stop them from running away from it.”

“It was unbelievable really. For the first three quarters, I thought we were super. We were hard in the contest … but to their credit, they kept coming at us and kept coming at us, but we were in front when the siren went.”

Fitzpatrick said to taste his first AFL win was a boyhood dream come true.

“It’s good fun and that’s what you play footy for. I’ve played footy since I was five years old and I was finally able to live my dream, have a win on the ‘G and play Saturday night footy – you can’t get much better than that,” he said.

“We’ve got Sydney next week, so we’ve got to focus on them.”