Melbourne coach Dean Bailey slammed the Demons for a lack of intensity early in their battling 11-point AFL victory over the Brisbane Lions on Sunday.

Melbourne only had two scoring shots in the first quarter and were five goals behind midway through the second term against the winless Lions before Liam Jurrah sparked the comeback.

The enigmatic forward booted three of his five goals in quick succession before halftime and the Demons held on to win 12.10 (82) to 11.5 (71) before a crowd of 24,380 at the MCG.

Melbourne also got good performances from midfielder Brent Moloney, who amassed a game-high 38 possessions, ruckman Mark Jamar and defender Jared Rivers.

But Bailey was struggling to find too many positives, especially as the Demons had been pilloried for their second-half capitulation at the same venue seven days ago against Hawthorn.

"Football is a very fundamental game. If you win those contested possessions and tackles, then you're in the game," said Bailey.

"If you decide not to win that, you allow the opposition in and through their hard work Brisbane put scoreboard pressure on us.

"Our first quarter was not good at all.

" ... the pleasing thing is they got themselves out of it, they hung in there and won the game which is very good for the group.

"But next week's 120 minutes (against Gold Coast) would want to be better than what we showed today."

The Lions closed to within six points deep into time-on in the last quarter on Sunday with a goal from impressive youngster Tom Rockliff.

But they were unable to get any closer, with Moloney fittingly capping an excellent game with the sealer for Melbourne.

The Lions were well served by 2001-03 premiership heroes Luke Power (four goals) and Simon Black, while coach Michael Voss was also thrilled with the debut of Jared Polec, their top draft pick from 2010.

But he wasn't prepared to offer any excuses after a second narrow loss in three weeks, interspersed by last weekend's heavy defeat to the Western Bulldogs.

"The fact is that while there are other people who don't have expectations of ourselves, we certainly do and we can't accept that," said Voss.

"We didn't get key roles done in certain times of the game and in a critical part of the game when they were coming, we didn't think our way through that.

"That's what cost us the game."

Jurrah's five-goal cameo included two spectacular efforts from outside 50m late in the second quarter when Melbourne were playing their best football of the day.

Austin Wonaeamirri also had his moments up forward for the Demons in his first senior match of 2011 following a difficult off-season which included the deaths of his father and of his football idol Maurice Rioli.

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