Melbourne coach Dean Bailey is letting his players stew over the weekend over their latest poor AFL performance before he addresses them.

Melbourne's 48-point loss to Essendon at Etihad Stadium on Friday night was the Demons' 11th from 12 games, and Bailey was again frustrated by poor errors and a lack of presence in a costly third quarter.

The Demons crept to within four points before halftime, but Essendon out-scored them seven goals to one in the third term to win 19.17 (131) to 13.5 (83).

Bailey left the players to themselves to ponder the defeat and said he would not speak to them until Monday when the Demons began their review of the game.

"It might be a chance for them to think about it over the weekend and we'll go through it on Monday and watch and evaluate the tape," he said.

"We'll evaluate like we have with most other games and we'll be pretty precise and pretty blunt with how we saw the game."

While impressive in a 10-minute burst in the second quarter, when Melbourne kicked three unanswered goals, Bailey was frustrated by the inability to maintain good standards throughout.

"It's disappointing we can't continue that, we can't continue to play like that for long periods of time," he said.

"The players are trying to play like that for as often as they can, but a couple of mistakes and we became a little bit hesitant with the ball in the third quarter ... and when you turn the ball over it just costs you.

"That's still an area of the game we'll continue to work on and if we can reduce that number of turnovers, then the difference in the scoreboard will start to get closer to what it is now."

One of the positives of Melbourne's performance was the debut of Liam Jurrah, who showed promise across half-forward and could play more games in the second half of the season.

"He plays the game at a pretty good level, so more experience will see him improve and a bigger body, after another pre-season or two, and hopefully we've uncovered a quick forward who can do some special things," Bailey said.

But last year's No.1 draft pick Jack Watts could be set for a spell after having little impact in two games, although he booted two goals against Essendon.

"We just have to be measured with him and manage him well enough," Bailey said.

"He's busy with his schooling at the moment, so we don't want to physically and mentally tire him."

Melbourne play the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba next Saturday night.

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