Melbourne captain Brad Green admits he thought the days of the Demons suffering heavy AFL losses were well behind them.

So Sunday's demolition by the Hawks, who trailed by 27 points midway through the second term before winning by 45, stunned him.

And Green has demanded the Demons immediately atone by hitting back hard against battling Brisbane at the MCG on Sunday.

As bad as the loss to the Hawks was, it could have been even worse as Hawthorn had 42 scoring shots to 17 and dominated the inside 50s 75-35.

Green acknowledged that Melbourne were lucky to escape what could have been a disastrous whipping, a situation he thought had been consigned to the past.

"Yeah, I did. Where we've been over the last couple of years was somewhere we didn't want to go back to," said Green, who saw plenty of big losses as the Demons finished 14th, 16th and 16th from 2007-09 before improving to 12th last year.

"We're looking to improve and get better and that was certainly a little hitch yesterday.

"We were probably lucky to be in it at half-time and to go in with a two or three goal lead was probably because of their undoing in their goalkicking more than our good play.

"They're a top-four team and as a side we're developing and trying to keep on improving.

"We've got to stop sides from getting a momentum switch and getting control of the games."

He said the Demons will be under intense scrutiny and must now make a strong statement.

And the draw has been kind to them, with successive matches to come against the winless Lions and new boys Gold Coast.

Green said he saw Hawthorn as a side that was "going for a premiership".

"They're tough to beat, they've got superstars all over the board - but we were there with them in the first half and that's something we've got to take out of it.

"We've got to get control of the ball, slow it down a bit and get it back on our terms," he said.

At least young star Tom Scully is close to returning from his knee injury.

"Hopefully Tom's out and running on the park this week and once he gets a workload into his legs we'll get him back in a couple of weeks," Green added.

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