Fresh from the biggest win of his career, Melbourne coach Dean Bailey says the Demons now need to learn to take that form on the road.

Melbourne thumped Sydney by 73 points in Sunday's AFL clash at the MCG, their biggest victory since Bailey took over at the start of 2008.

The victory kept the 11th-placed club still technically in the finals hunt, but Bailey said before they could consider that possibility they needed to show better form interstate.

Their only win outside of Melbourne under Bailey's guidance came in neutral territory, when they downed Port Adelaide by a point in Darwin in round nine.

Before then, their most recent travelling victory came more than four years ago, against Brisbane at the Gabba.

"The question in regards to can we (make finals) or not, everyone will say mathematically we can," Bailey told Foxtel's On The Couch program on Monday night.

"But we won one game on the weekend, we played well for most of three-and-a-half quarters.

"We've got an away trip against Brisbane (next round), we've got an away trip against Port Adelaide (in round 21).

"The challenge for us as far as a travelling team is can we perform well and can we win interstate?

"If you win enough games you get there."

Bailey said his side was not thinking beyond Saturday night's Gabba clash with the Lions.

"The expectation of our players now is to really grab hold of next week, we're going to get judged on next week's game," he said.

"We can't afford to play well one week and be poor the next week, because inconsistency's going to cost you, so that's the challenge."

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