THE DEES will look to strengthen their position in the top eight when they head to Tasmania to take on third-placed Hawthorn on Saturday.
Despite Melbourne's strong form, coach Steven King says the focus remains firmly on continuing to challenge every opponent, rather than looking ahead to September.
Hear more from King's Round 17 preview below.
STAYING TRUE TO THEIR BRAND
"I certainly don't talk about finals at all," King said.
"From day one, I said we wanted to be a team that challenges every team we play against. I feel like, bar one or two occasions where we haven't been at our best, we've been able to do that.
"Take wins and losses away from it, if we stay true to that and keep playing a brand of footy that's challenging for the opposition, the results will take care of themselves.
"I want us to run towards the rest of the year and not ease up at all."
ON HAWTHORN
"We'll look back and reflect a little bit on what worked and what we could do a bit better”, King said.
"They've obviously upped their game a bit as well. Their stoppage work's going a lot better now with Will Day in there, and they're playing some really good footy.
"It's a privilege to play in big games that have weighting towards finals. We're playing a team sitting third on the ladder and we need to take another scalp to solidify where we stand.
"It's a great opportunity."
ON WINNING AWAY FROM HOME
"I think a sign of maturity as a team is winning on the road," King said.
"Apart from Gather Round, I think we've been really competitive away from home.
"Against Adelaide, I couldn't have been more bullish walking away from that game around the style of footy that we played. We fell short, but probably left a heap of opportunities out there.
"We still had 10 players under 50 games last week in Adelaide, so that banked experience will hold us in good stead."
ON THE INJURY FRONT
"Harrison Petty’s going really well," King said.
"He trained fully on the weekend, and we'll get another couple of sessions into him before making a call. We won't take any risks if he's not quite where he needs to be.
"We’d love to get Christian Salem back in the team with his experience, Xavier Lindsay's not far away either. Jack Viney is the other one building his loads slowly but surely.”
