ASSISTANT coach Jade Rawlings says the next seven rounds are critical for the team’s development as it continues to build for the future.

Rawlings said with the team having ticked off five wins for the year – Melbourne’s best season since 2011 – and was now aiming to add more victories in the coming weeks.

“We see the next seven weeks as really important footy for us – to improve and to really challenge how we’re playing and to go to the next level,” he told Dee TV.

“Last year, we dropped away dramatically and we’re really disappointed with that and we didn’t think it was a true reflection of our overall year, but history says we only had four wins for the year.

“With 16 rounds gone, it’s been reasonable [this season], but we should’ve had a couple more [wins]. These next seven weeks present real opportunities for us to really progress the footy team and find out more about individuals and really hone in on how we want to play.”

Looking ahead to Sunday’s clash against St Kilda at the MCG, Rawlings said it had been a fascinating week to prepare against an opponent, which it had only played just over a month ago.

“From an opposition planning perspective, is it about what they do for the last two weeks or is it when we played them six weeks ago? We’ll just marry a bit of both,” he said.

“They’ve got a good feel for us, when we played that game at Etihad [Stadium in round 11], as we did for them. I think it was a really good battle last time and clearly we should’ve finished the job with 40 seconds to go – and we didn’t.

“There was a lot learned and they played a good contested brand of footy and they challenge you a lot with how they move the footy. We’d like to think we’re developing and evolving in those areas as well, so it should be a good game again.”

Rawlings said the players and coaches were pleased with their 24-point win over the Brisbane Lions at the MCG last round – even if the match copped some flak from the media and several sections of the football public.

“It was pleasing to get the result. Not a lot of people seemed overly impressed with the victory, but we were happy with it,” he said.

“We thought we put a lot of good work in, especially the first half to keep the team to one goal – and we’ve got a fair bit of time for their scoring ability, especially early in games.

“We were pretty pleased with the result and clearly we would’ve liked the ball better and finished a few more opportunities in the second half, but the four points was important for us.”

The backline coach said he was pleased with his charges to keep the Lions to just four goals, but he added that it took the midfielders and forwards to help make it happen.

“It was more of a team system thing I thought,” he said.

“The pressure up front by the forwards was very good and our midfielders have really come a long way with the way they defend in the middle of the ground, and I thought the backs did a good job.

“To keep them to one goal in the first half – we were really pleased with and I thought we just dropped away a little bit in how we defended across the ground, but overall, it was a good performance.”

Rawlings said the Demons had planned heavily to limit the Lions’ scoring opportunities.  

“We put a lot of time into how Brisbane did score and a lot of their score was early in games. They were able to run and carry the ball a lot, so we were very prepared for that,” he said.

“They carried out their plans of not giving them time and space to do what they wanted very well. I thought we let the foot off the throat a bit in the second half and they challenged us a fair bit with how they moved it in the second half.

“On a good day at the MCG, to keep a team to four goals, we’re pleased with that.”