MELBOURNE coach Dean Bailey says the Demons are a more composed unit than they were 12 months ago, as demonstrated in the way they held off a charging Port Adelaide in the final quarter of Saturday night's 21-point win in Darwin.

The Demons were 45 points up at the 20-minute mark of the third quarter before the Power launched their final assault with five unanswered goals that had them within 14 points near the end of the final stanza.

Bailey said he was pleased with the result, but more so the players' ability to withstand the late surge.

"I thought we had some opportunities in the last quarter to show some composure, and we took those," he said.

"We probably had a couple of opportunities where we could have been cleaner with our ball use in the last quarter but [Port] had a mindset it was all-or-nothing in the last quarter and some of their clearance stuff in the last quarter was pretty good.

"I think at times when we controlled the speed of the game on those four or five occasions, it was certainly a lot better than we did last year so we certainly improved in that area."

Bailey said the win, which came after the Demons' second bye and before that, a 64-point loss to the Western Bulldogs, would make the long flight home much more enjoyable.

"We came here with a very strong resolve that we needed to win this game and the result showed that we did," he said.

"They were tough conditions and the game was pretty even, really, when you think about the opportunities they had and we had early.

"Fortunately for us, we took ours and in the second half there were only a couple of points in it if you look at goals for, so it was a tight second half."

Bailey said defender James Frawley was "outstanding" with his "attack and appetite for the contest, while the backmen in general stood up when under pressure.

He also praised the job Nathan Jones did on Danyle Pearce, and said his player had "broken even" against the classy Port midfielder by the end of the game.

With games against Hawthorn, Geelong, Carlton and West Coast on the horizon, Bailey said recovery - particularly hydration and the monitoring of weight lost in the 28-degree conditions - would be paramount.

But, he felt his players weren't lethargic late in the game despite the conditions and fact they had last weekend off.

"We've come off the bye with an extra training session in, which was along the lines of if you give the players too many days off, that can almost breed a bit of lethargy," he said.

"We were still running over the ground in the last quarter. I just think they kicked a couple of very good stoppage goals and got themselves on a bit of a run but we composed ourselves better than we had this time last year."

Bailey said midfielder Tom Scully would be monitored this week after being subbed off with a sore knee in the third quarter but didn't think it was a serious complaint.

"He just landed awkwardly on his knee and we were talking about who could be the sub, and the medical advice was that he's come off and we need to check him and it might take five to 10 minutes," he said.

"So we subbed him. We'll see how he is in the next 24-48 hours but hopefully it's nothing more than a bruised knee."