“IT’S all starting to come together.”

Reward for effort and affirmation of belief: Sam Docherty believes the Club’s recent winning run represents both of those things.

The sidelined co-captain has watched on from the bench, and expressed his delight and excitement at watching his teammates record five wins from their last seven games.

After a barren run by way of wins in recent years, Docherty said the last two months would raise belief both in and out of Ikon Park.

“I can’t put words in another peoples’ mouths but internally, we’re very confident in the group that we’ve got and the group that will move forward,” Docherty told RSN’s Inner Sanctum.

“Results speak for themselves… you can sell as much hope as you life. You can sell how good your list is going to be, which we believe internally.

“To be able to show that this group can win games of footy - I know it’s only a small sample size, but we’ve played some pretty consistent footy over seven weeks. We’ve got some results.”

Positional shifts have paid dividends in recent weeks according to Docherty, with the Blues getting 22 players playing their role across the board.

The 25-year-old said it was crucial to not underestimate the importance of relatively new Blues building chemistry with their new teammates.

“When you’ve got multi-positional changes going on, it gets quite hard for players to nail down their role… we’ve probably got a more-set forward line, a more-set midfield and a more-set back line,” he said.

“They get chemistry with what they’re doing on the wings, the guys on the inside get more chemistry with what they’re doing rather than having six or seven guys float in-and-out.

“That’s been a big point which has helped a lot… just get your job done and we’ll play good footy.”

Personally, the 2019 season was the second consecutive year where Docherty hasn’t run out in the Navy Blue.

However, he said he couldn’t wait to run out alongside his teammates in 2020 — particularly given the signs shown in recent weeks.

“I reckon we’re one of the only teams outside the eight that doesn’t want the season to finish,” he said.

“There’s a level of confidence which I’m gaining from watching and seeing what these boys are doing.

“The confidence of the group and the excitement going forward is something I’m very much looking forward to playing with.”