MELBOURNE has seven weeks to find its best forward mix.

While the club's remarkably impressive 12-3 start to the season deserves all the plaudits it has received and more, ultimately the side's improvement will be judged by what happens in September.

An ambitious Simon Goodwin tipped the Demons for the top-four in pre-season and the club brought in ex-Kangaroos spearhead Ben Brown to be the key forward to help them get there.

But Brown, due to form and fitness issues, has just three games to his name so far this season. Sam Weideman, the young star supposedly destined to be his partner in a new-look attack, has featured just five times. They've played together only once.

Melbourne's priority in its final seven games, undoubtedly, should be to secure that top-four finish and subsequently earn a double-chance in finals. Second to that, though, should be determining its best look inside-50.

Different combinations featuring Brown, Weideman and Tom McDonald must be considered, and it starts on Thursday night for a pivotal clash with a fourth-placed Port Adelaide on the road.

Brown will play at the Adelaide Oval, having been placed on restricted minutes in Casey's VFL defeat to Greater Western Sydney on Saturday night. That was done so the 200cm forward could be fresh despite a five-day break ahead of Thursday.

His inclusion comes after the Demons kicked their lowest score of the season – 7.13 (55) - in the loss to the Giants, with three of the club’s four lowest scores for the year coming in the last three matches.

But there are obvious challenges Melbourne has faced when combining McDonald with either Brown or Weideman that will need to be ironed out ahead of the finals. Those challenges are why this seven-week period remains so crucial for the club.

They relate to Melbourne's retention rate when playing with a McDonald-Brown forward line, the sudden inequity in inside-50 targets, and whether the club loses ground-level spark when playing with multiple key-position forwards in the same side.

To start with, Champion Data notes the Demons have an inside-50 retention rate of 53.9 per cent (ranked sixth in the competition) when McDonald is playing as the side's go-to key forward with a combination of either Luke Jackson, Max Gawn or Mitch Brown.

That number dips to 52.9 per cent (ranked 10th in the League) when McDonald is partnered directly with Weideman, then to 51 per cent (also ranked 10th in the League) when McDonald is played alongside Brown.

There's also been a significant Brown-heavy focus in the handful of matches he has played this year, impacting McDonald who – with 24 goals from 15 games – has arguably been the side's most impressive forward this season.

McDonald, in the eight games where he's featured as the side's main forward option, has been the attention of 22.5 per cent of inside-50 targets. That number moves to 23.9 per cent when paired with Weideman.

However, in the three games he's been partnered with Brown, that number dips to just 9.2 per cent. Meanwhile, in those same games, Brown's percentage of inside-50 targets lifts to a whopping 26 per cent.

Champion Data also notes there has been, to a lesser extent, a slight decrease in Melbourne's forward pressure numbers when multiple key forwards play in the same side this season.

In the eight games McDonald has been the main target in a smaller forward set-up, the Demons average 12.5 forward-50 tackles per game (ranked No.1 in the League) and have a pressure factor of 1.72 per game (ranked No.2 in the League).

Their forward-50 tackle numbers drop to 11 per game with Brown in the side (ranked No.5 in the League) and down to just 8.5 per game when McDonald is paired with Weideman (ranked No.12 in the League).

Furthermore, perhaps in an indication of why Weideman has returned to the VFL with Casey over the last fortnight, Melbourne's pressure factor has also dipped to 1.57 per game (ranked No.13 in the League) when he has been partnered with McDonald.

Brown, having kicked 12 goals in his first four VFL games before being placed on restricted minutes last weekend, gets the next – and perhaps the best – opportunity to prove he is the man for September this Thursday night.

However, speaking earlier this week, Goodwin suggested Weideman wasn't out of the equation and said that no one formula will be stuck with from now until the upcoming finals series.

"We've won games of footy with the mix we're going with this weekend, we've won with Weideman in the team, we've won with playing two talls (McDonald and either Jackson or Gawn)," Goodwin said.

"So, we're not wedded to any certain formula. What we are wedded to is playing a little bit better consistently and hitting the scoreboard. There's no question Ben provides us with an opportunity to do that.

"He's a proven goalkicker, he's been in really good form (in the VFL) and he's built his body up to a position where he feels really confident in it. That's part of the battle, getting him into a position where he feels confident that he can perform at the level.

"We're really confident that he's coming back a better player."

Whether Brown can take the chance is another question altogether. Improve the scoring, retention and pressure numbers to the level McDonald had achieved as the main target in the season's first six weeks, and it can be considered an opportunity grasped.