The Western Bulldogs cruised to a comfortable 14.11 (95) to 9.10 (64) victory over bottom-placed Melbourne in their AFL clash at Telstra Dome today.

The Demons battled hard to stay in touch until early in the third quarter, but with their attack struggling badly, they never looked likely to kick enough goals.

Both sides made plenty of errors in the first half, but the Bulldogs were at least able to capitalise on enough of their chances to score goals at regular intervals.

By contrast, the Demons' only scoring shot of the first quarter came with 20 seconds to play, a goal to Lynden Dunn, who was a touch lucky to be paid a free kick for high contact in a marking contest.

Their next goal, 11 minutes into the second term, also needed some help from the umpires, with Chris Johnson paid a 50m penalty after he was pulled to the ground by Farren Ray after marking on the wing.

The Demons added two majors late in the first half to be within 20 points at the long break.

When they opened the second half with a nice snap from Brad Green over his head they were within 14 points.

But, after being prevented from pulling away in the first half by some good defensive pressure from Melbourne, the 'Dogs class started to tell late in the third quarter.

Daniel Giansiracusa and Jason Akermanis kicked two goals each in a burst of four majors in 11 minutes for the Bulldogs to open up a game-breaking 43-point lead at the last change.

They extended it to 49 early in the last term, with the Demons kicking four of the last five goals to reduce the margin after the sting was out of the contest.

Midfielders Matthew Boyd and Daniel Cross worked hard throughout the match for the Bulldogs.

For Melbourne, Cameron Bruce gathered plenty of the ball while Lynden Dunn prevented Bulldogs star Adam Cooney from having his normal impact.

The victory means that the Bulldogs will be playing for top spot when they take on Geelong at Skilled Stadium next Saturday.

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