STRIKER Eli Babalj may have ticked all the boxes for season 2011-12 but he won't be satisfied until Melbourne Heart gets another crack at Brisbane Roar or Central Coast.

Heart will have to reach the preliminary final to earn a sudden death playoff with the Roar or the Mariners, but that would require wins in the opening two weeks of the A-League finals series.

John van't Schip's side is undefeated in six games going into the finals although the past four games have yielded draws.

Heart goes to Perth or Wellington in the opening week of the finals but it won't know its fate until the whistle sounds on this afternoon's final round of games.

Babalj netted his ninth of the season, a brilliant individual goal to earn Heart a point away to Adelaide in a game it dominated for the most part on Friday night, and he said Heart planned to make a finals impact.

"I set myself a target of scoring eight and I've achieved that and our team goal was getting to the playoffs, so individually and collectively we've achieved our goals but it doesn't stop and hopefully we can go close (to winning)," Babalj said.

"We've shown we can beat anyone. Some people say we've had a disappointing season but Brisbane hasn't beaten us and we've beaten Central Coast and played well against them. So hopefully we get to play them again because we've showed we can match them and rise to the occasion. We've found form when it counts and were in good shape, we're fit and fighting for positions."

It's widely accepted Fred is the player Heart can ill-afford to lose but Babalj, 20, is looming as a key player in the club's finals debut.

A parallel can be drawn between Babalj's goals and Heart's purple patches this season and having resumed full-scale training two months ago he is as fit as he has ever been.

"All in all I'm happy considering I didn't have a pre-season," he said.

"I started off well and I was lucky enough when I came in we started winning, then we went through a patch where we didn't win in eight and I didn't score in six and that was disappointing.

"But as soon as we got a few players back it started to jell and I started getting more chances and I've been putting them in the back of the net."

Van't Schip is happy with Babalj's progress.

The Dutchman is leaving at the end of the season but he believes his team can cause some damage in April.

"We're happy with the goals he (Eli) has scored for us. He's doing very good work for us and he should do what he has to do. A striker wants to score but if he makes runs and creates space for others then he's doing his job.

"We go into the finals with a lot of confidence because we have a strong team," van't Schip said.

"We're getting stronger and stronger so I'm confident about our chances."