The precocious talents of Liam Jurrah may need protecting to survive the AFL season, Melbourne coach Dean Bailey says.

The gifted Jurrah produced eye catching cameos as the Demons triumphed in their opening matches in the pre-season competition in Adelaide on Friday night.

Melbourne defeated Adelaide by 10 points and Port Adelaide by nine points to advance to the next round.

The smooth moving Jurrah teamed with emerging forward Jack Watts in salivating displays for Demon supporters.

The 22-year-old Jurrah has proven talent, now coach Bailey wants him to prove durability after missing 14 games last season following a shoulder reconstruction.

"LJ has got a real test in front of him, whether he can get the 22 games into him for the home and away season will be a really good test," Bailey said.

"He's a fantastic player who has played less than 15 games or something.

"So let's wait and see what he can produce over the full season first."

Melbourne hierarchy were considering resting Jurrah during their pre-season campaign.

"We will sit down with the fitness staff over the next week and plan out the next three games," Bailey said.

"Match practice is really important but some of the guys will certainly get opportunities of resting games or missing games, and I think he would probably be one of them."

Watts appears on the verge of justifying his number one pick in the 2008 national draft.

"Every game, every minute of experience he plays, is going to be important for Wattsy," Bailey said.

"He took a couple of really nice contested marks and his goalkicking has always been pretty good, it's one of his strengths.

"He has put some weight on and he'll continue to put some weight on during the year and into next year.

"He's very keen to do well, Jack, and he's very much a team player ... he's working hard on his game and he's had a pretty good pre-season."

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