Barry Hall has booted five goals to lead a Sydney side made to work hard for their 40-point victory against cellar dwellers Melbourne at Manuka Oval.

A wasteful Hall monstered the Demons defenders throughout the contest but finished with 5.5 despite all the full forward's shots for goal being gettable.

He finished with 16 touches and 11 marks in the 17.12 (114) to 11.8 (74) result in Canberra.

The Demons closed to within 11 points in the third term before Sydney booted the next four goals to shore up their place in the top four.

Besides Hall, Martin Mattner was outstanding with his run out of defence for the Swans and midfield general Brett Kirk continued his strong season in the clinches.

For the Demons, Matthew Bate did his best to inspire his teammates with four majors while Lynden Dunn kept Adam Goodes quiet and Aaron Davey sparked his side's third quarter fightback.

Jude Bolton, who celebrated his 200th match, labelled the encounter against the bottom-placed team a danger game this week but his side's biggest problem in the opening term was working out who should be on the interchange bench.

Following a goal midway through the opening term, the Swans had seven players off the ground at one time before rectifying the problem with plenty of pointing and gesticulating going on.

On the field the Swans had precious few problems early on with Hall enjoying acres of space to boot three goals in the opening 12 minutes.

The Swans cantered to a 30-point quarter-time lead and edged that out to a 32-point halftime edge as Bate kept the Demons in the contest with three first-half goals.

A rejuvenated Melbourne took the game to the Swans after the long break with Davey sparking the Demons as they booted five of the next six majors.

Sydney's radar in front of goal started to become a little scrambled - they kicked 2.7 over one period - before Michael O'Loughlin's second goal stretched their lead out to 17 points at the final break.

Mattner capped his strong performance with his second goal early in the final term before majors to Nick Malceski and Lewis Roberts-Thomson iced the game.

Sydney's Ryan O'Keefe is in line for a fine after colliding with umpire Stefan Grun in the opening term.

The Demons host Brisbane at the MCG on Sunday while the Swans enjoy a bye.

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