Melbourne's finals aspirations - and their credibility - were dealt a blow as West Coast surged to a comfortable 54-point AFL victory in a one-sided encounter at Patersons Stadium on Thursday night.

The Eagles set the tone of the match with a dominant five-goals-to-nil opening term, keeping Melbourne at bay for the rest of the contest to cruise to the 15.16 (106) to 6.16 (52) victory in front of 36,298 fans.

The Demons have now lost their past 11 encounters in Perth, a worrying trend stretching all the way back to 2004.

But of even more concern has been their inability to show any clear improvement on the promising form that took them to eight wins and a draw last year.

Midfielders Matt Priddis (33 possessions) and Daniel Kerr (27) did the damage around the stoppages for the home side, while Andrew Embley, Jack Darling and Quinten Lynch kicked three goals apiece, with Mark Nicoski finishing with six score assists and two goals.

Demons defender Colin Garland stood tall under a barrage of Eagles' attacks, ruckman Mark Jamar battled valiantly and under-fire forward Jack Watts (15 possessions, one goal) put in his most impressive performance of the year.

But there was little else to cheer about for the visitors.

As bad as Melbourne were, West Coast were equally good, with their unrelenting harassment a highlight of their performance.

And with three wins from five games, it's safe to say last year's wooden spooners are finally on track to achieving the future success coach John Worsfold has been promising fans for the past few years.

The Demons were horrible in the opening quarter, making mistake after mistake as they failed to cope with West Coast's intense pressure.

It was like men against boys as West Coast booted 5.3 to two behinds to take a commanding 31-point lead at quarter time, with Melbourne coach Dean Bailey left to scratch his head in dismay as he made his way to the Demons' huddle.

Melbourne showed better fight in the second quarter, and although the lead stretched out to 38 points approaching time on, the Demons sensed they had turned the tide somewhat.

Late goals to Colin Sylvia and Aaron Davey closed the deficit to a manageable 26 points by half-time, giving the visitors some hope of pulling off an unlikely victory.

But it wasn't to be, with the Eagles re-asserting their dominance in the third quarter to shore up victory.

Eagles forward Mark LeCras, playing his first match since tearing his groin in round one, looked a tad rusty but was still prominent in kicking 1.3 from 12 possessions before being subbed off at three-quarter time.

"It is a poor performance, it is a poor performance," a despondent Melbourne coach Dean Bailey said after the match.

"We turned the ball over too much.

"We've got to go back to the fundamentals of the game and get better in those areas.

"You don't start well, you get what you deserve really."

West Coast coach John Worsfold praised his team's tireless work ethic.

"Rapt to see the boys get a good result," Worsfold said.

"We've had four pretty tight games leading into this one so to actually get the margin out a little bit is some good reward for the players."

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