Melbourne double-act Jesse Hogan and Jeff Garlett have kicked the Demons to a 63-point dismissal of AFL easybeats Brisbane.
The tall-and-small duo shared seven goals in the 19.17 (131) to 9.14 (68) romp at the MCG on Sunday.
While at times the football was far from fluent, the win was Melbourne's biggest home success in four years.
Hogan's five goals were spread across all four quarters, while Garlett nabbed two and assisted three others in the first half when the match was on the line.
A host of next-gen Demons stood up.
Tomas Bugg and Billy Stretch were singled out by Melbourne coach Paul Roos for praise while Clayton Oliver and Christian Petracca were prominent.
James Harmes also bagged four goals, three in fourth-quarter time-on as the Demons blew the margin out.
Melbourne built their dominance in the second term, growing a buffer in the second quarter with four unanswered goals in seven minutes.
That included Viv Michie's first goal of his career, which had Demons running from every corner of the ground in congratulations.
Roos said he was most impressed with his side's new-found resilience.
"There were times when we were really challenged as a group," he said.
"We had nine players with less than 20 games.
"Our ability to respond with such a young group was really, really pleasing."
Melbourne won both the disposal and the tackle count but for most of the afternoon, this was no Brisbane horror show.
The Lions took almost 45 minutes to hit the scoreboard in their heavy last-out loss to Collingwood, but did so within 45 seconds against the Demons.
Justin Leppitsch's undermanned side were outclassed but showed an improved intent and had their moments.
Brisbane were on top during the third term but didn't take their opportunities, kicking 1.5 to let the Demons off the hook.
The Lions lowered their colours late, allowing Melbourne to kick nine of the last 12 goals to run out strong winners.
Melbourne improved their win-loss to 5-4 with the result, while Brisbane have now lost five straight.
Leppitsch said he saw signs of improvement and something to build on.
"You've got to be willing and able in this game and I think we were willing today," he said.
"The mistake rate was too high probably in all facets defensively. At least it's a starting point."
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