Melbourne coach Dean Bailey is demanding a fierce start from his team on Sunday against St Kilda.

Earlier this week, Saints coach Ross Lyon said his team would be on "red alert" after the Demons' 44-point loss to Adelaide, one of Melbourne's worst performances of the season.

Bailey said on Friday he would prefer the Demons are too enthusiastic at the start of Sunday's game, rather than produce the sort of slow opening that has cost them lately.

"The start of the game, our intensity has to be right up - even if we're over the top with it, I'd rather be over the top with it than low," Bailey said.

"We expect a far more competitive effort than what we showed last week.

"We don't want to give away free kicks ... our intensity has to be directed at the ball and the player with the ball.

"That means your tackling has to be effective and you don't want to be giving away free kicks, absolutely not.

"The basics of winning one-on-one footy has to be at its best on Sunday."

The Demons will tweak their pre-game warm-up and have trained with more intensity at the start of the main session this week as they try to improve on their first quarters.

They are definitely a better side this season, but they only have one win and a draw from their last eight games.

"We haven't won enough quarters yet, before you look at the end result, we're still at 21-22 quarters we've won, last year it was 32," Bailey said.

"So we've got to get past 32, we want to be in games more and I think we have to be more consistent."

Melbourne made three changes for Sunday's match at Etihad Stadium, recalling Kyle Cheney, Jake Spencer and Jamie Bennell.

The Saints brought in Adam Pattison for suspended defender Steven Baker.

But Demons captain James McDonald remains sidelined with a hamstring injury.

Bailey said they were taking a cautious approach with McDonald's return and are hopeful he can increase his training this week.

Colin Sylvia will play in the VFL this weekend as he returns from a blood clot in his foot.

Meanwhile, there was some friction between new training neighbours Melbourne and Collingwood on Friday as they sought out their boundaries.

The Demons have moved to the new AAMI Park venue, next door to the Magpies' Westpac Centre.

The two clubs were training at nearby adjoining ovals on Friday morning when there was a brief argument between some club staff about who should be where.

But Bailey, who apparently was unaware of the minor spat, is confident the two clubs will co-exist.

"The facilities we've got are great," he said.

"Obviously ours is a newer oval and it's going to take a little bit of bedding in and hopefully that will develop with the ground.

"I think the two clubs seem to be working pretty well to be honest."

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