BULLOCKING Melbourne forward Chris Dawes says the Demons should be shooting for finals next year despite a poor finish to 2014.

After a promising first half of the season under new coach Paul Roos, Melbourne faded badly to finish 17th with a 4-18 win-loss record.

But Dawes, who has played two seasons at Melbourne since switching from Collingwood, said the playing group had to aim high.

"The club will do its best to manage expectations from supporters and from the industry and they won't talk about finals this year, but as players, we absolutely have to be talking about finals," he told melbournefc.com.au.

"It has to be our goal. It's not a question of talent, because we've got one of the more talented lists in the comp – in my view – and we've still got a few holes as everyone would.

"This playing group is absolutely capable of it and it's got to be a big part of our belief."

Dawes said the Demons should not be concerned by the drop-off in the back half of last season; rather, they should concentrate on the strides made in the first half.

"The second half of the year on field was disappointing and through the middle of the year we were actually starting to play a pretty good brand of football," he said.

"We were playing good contested footy – the sort of footy that holds up in finals.”

After doing a limited pre-season, Dawes admitted his 18 games "weren't very high quality", but insisted he would be in better shape for next season.