AN IMPORTANT milestone was notched up by Melbourne on the weekend.

It may not seem anything of note, but considering where the club has been – it was. The fact the Demons recorded their fifth win of the season was something that hasn’t been reached since 2011.

It reinforces two key things – that genuine improvement has been made this season and that the recent years have seen some extraordinarily tough times.

In 2011, the Demons won eight matches – and remarkably were still in finals contention after round 17, having won seven games. History shows plenty happened – on and off field – in the latter part of that year and the Dees finished with eight victories.

The following year, in 2012, four wins were achieved, followed by another couple in 2013 and four last year – Paul Roos’ first at the helm. These have been trying times indeed for the Dees, especially when you reflect that at least five wins have been reached in just four seasons since 2007. And eight wins in 2010-11 has been the most achieved.

In realising that Melbourne had ticked this ‘five win’ box after its 24-point victory over the Brisbane Lions at the MCG – it was an important hurdle.

For the record, the Demons also ended a five-match losing streak against the Brisbane Lions.

It also happened to be the first time Jeremy Howe had tasted a win over the Lions, as he explained.

“My first year was 2011 and we beat them in round three and I didn’t play in that game, so that’s the first time I’ve beaten Brisbane,” he told melbournefc.com.au. 

“We’re definitely on the right track – we’ve got five wins and the back half of the year is definitely a lot friendlier than the front half [in terms of the fixture].

“It’s still going to be a big challenge along the way, but we see we can finish off the back half of this year really positively, We’ve just got to play like we did in that first half for four quarters.

“We don’t look at wins and losses, but there are definitely a lot more winnable games in the back seven games.”

With seven matches remaining, the club is most excited about what it can achieve. And it has a fascinating fixture.

Matches against St Kilda, Collingwood, North Melbourne, Western Bulldogs, Carlton, Fremantle and Greater Western Sydney follow. All except the round 22 clash against Freo are Victorian based. Four are at the MCG against the Saints, Magpies, Kangaroos and Blues respectively; two are at Etihad Stadium against the Dogs and Giants.

There are some winnable matches in there for the Demons. There are 50/50 encounters and some tough ones. Time will tell what the result will be.

Next Sunday’s clash against St Kilda should be a beauty.

It was a see-sawing contest last time. But the end result wasn’t what the red and blue hoped for, as just two points separated Melbourne from victory.

It makes this weekend’s clash compulsive viewing for anyone with red and blue running through their veins.

As does the rest of the 2015 season – as you can expect the Demons will make the most of their seven final rounds.