A LITTLE more than two months ago Sam Frost was battling away at Casey, doing all he could for Melbourne's VFL affiliate to hopefully earn a recall to the senior side.

Now, the key defender is readying himself for the challenge of taking on Geelong spearhead Tom Hawkins in his first ever finals appearance when the Demons meet the Cats in an elimination finals clash at the MCG on September 7.

With injuries to Jake Lever and Joel Smith leaving the Demons short of defensive options, Frost has taken his opportunity at the right time and the form he has shown since returning to the senior team in round 16 has been the result of a lot of hard work and patience.

"There's no secret to what I'm doing, I'm out there trying to have a bit of fun and giving it a real crack," Frost told AFL.com.au.

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But the 25-year-old is not giving himself the credit he deserves. In July, he was overlooked for selection, with untried first-year defender Harrison Petty the club's preferred choice, and seemingly Frost (who had not appeared at AFL level since round four) was far from the thoughts of the Demons' match committee.

However, his form turnaround has come when the Demons needed him most, with the athletic defender's performance against Greater Western Sydney on Sunday winning plaudits from coach Simon Goodwin.

"He's learned a lot, Sam. He's got better and better as the year's gone on," Goodwin said.

"His ability to defend strongly but also mop up ground balls and transition the ball out of there has been a really strong asset for us."

Frost said that during his time in the VFL he concentrated hard on not allowing his disappointment at not being picked for the AFL side affect how he was approaching the game.

Now 66 matches into a seven-year career split between Greater Western Sydney and Melbourne, Frost is a little more aware of how the system works.

"Maturity is a big one, just knowing that sometimes you've got to bide your time playing VFL and there's no point getting too upset about it," Frost said.

"You're playing your role for the team and it's not about you. That's the mentality I've tried to have and I think that's held me in good stead, being positive during my time at VFL and then keeping a level head during my time in the AFL."

Frost worked hard on ironing out a few deficiencies in his game and the match committee began to notice the improvements he had made.

"It was mostly around the consistency around my contest work. When I'm in the contest, I'm normally pretty good. But it's just a matter of being in more contests throughout the game," Frost said.

"I was doing it at times, but I was fluctuating. Once they were happy with my consistency and playing good four-quarter games, that's when I got my spot, and I've taken some momentum from my games in the VFL into the seniors."

Frost had a team-high seven intercepts against the Giants, gaining 370m from his 16 disposals, and his ability to run and carry and take the game on from vulnerable positions stood out.

"I tend to get a bit excited ball in hand, so composure's a massive one," Frost said. "It's a bit of a free swing. As long as I'm running and getting involved on offence, we'll (the Demons) cop a few mistakes every now and then."

Frost has been slowly but surely eliminating those critical errors from his game and said he was looking forward to trying to curtail Hawkins' influence.

The Melbourne backman only played on the big Cat briefly during the teams' clash in round 18, with the Geelong forward on fire when the Demons made the move to put Frost onto him in place of Oscar McDonald.

Hawkins kicked four of his seven goals in the final term as the Cats, thanks to Zach Tuohy's after-the-siren heroics, pinched a two-point victory at GMHBA Stadium.

"I didn't spend too much time on him last game, but I'll watch a bit of tape from the last time we played them," Frost said. "You prepare like it's any other game as far as I'm concerned and we'll talk about what we want to do with match-ups and that kind of thing."

Frost said the prospect of being part of Melbourne's first finals campaign in 12 years was exciting for the fans and for him.

"There's going to be a big buzz around the city and that's not something I've really experienced before," Frost said.

But we're definitely up for the challenge. We've shown the last two weeks that we're up for the challenge and we've just got to keep turning up and playing well against good sides."