Coach Paul Roos hailed Melbourne's exceptional improvement after a stirring three-point victory against the Adelaide Crows.
But Roos says his perennial strugglers are yet to turn the proverbial corner despite producing one of the upsets of the AFL season in Saturday's twilight fixture.
Roos described the Demons' 11.4 (70) to 9.13 (67) triumph at Adelaide Oval as a "terrific win ... a great achievement".
But he said Melbourne were still building towards being able to compete for an entire game after nearly being over-run by a lacklustre Adelaide.
The Demons skipped to a six-goal lead midway through the second quarter as the Crows lost forward Tom Lynch (fractured jaw) and defender Matthew Jaensch (suspected broken ribs).
Roos praised "exceptional" improvement in Melbourne's defensive aspects - they allowed the Crows just two goals in the first half.
Adelaide launched a second-half fightback and snuck within four points in the 17th minute of a frantic final quarter - but Melbourne held them off and banked a second win of the season.
"We are still building to play 120 minutes - there is no doubt," Roos said.
"We are not coaching to full capacity. We are really only coaching 80 per cent of what we want to try and do because it takes time to get things sorted out."
Melbourne's success was created largely by three-goal forward Chris Dawes and influential games from midfielders Jack Viney (23 disposals), ex-Crow Bernie Vince (26 touches) and Dom Tyson (29 possessions).
They helped overwhelm an Adelaide outfit which, with three wins and four losses, continued to frustrate their coach Brenton Sanderson.
"I hated the first half," Sanderson said.
"Our fans deserve better than that. They'll be really angry - we know that."
Describing Adelaide's performance as "inexcusable", Sanderson forecast personnel changes.
"It's making us very frustrated because we're relying on individuals to get us back into the game, not playing as a team.
"We need more from more players.
"We can't keep picking players if they aren't contributing. We have got guys playing well for small patches in the game and then they will drift out for a quarter - you can't do that in the modern game."
Adelaide's Lynch, who only returned from a shoulder injury last week, will miss up to six games with his fractured jaw while scans on Jaensch were expected to confirm broken ribs.
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