The blowtorch has been turned up on Melbourne coach Dean Bailey after the Demons' embarrassing 54-point AFL loss to West Coast on Thursday night.

Demons members have set up an online petition on Facebook urging the club to get rid of Bailey, who is out of contract at the end of the season and under intense pressure to produce results after his team's indifferent start to the year.

Melbourne were woeful against West Coast, entering their forward 50m zone just three times in the opening quarter as the Eagles piled on the first five goals of the match.

The final margin flattered the Demons, but Melbourne fans were left in little doubt as to just how poorly their team performed in the 15.16 (106) to 6.16 (52) result.

Bailey cut a despondent figure after the match and could only trot out token lines as he tried to explain his team's horrendous showing.

"It is a poor performance, it is a poor performance," Bailey said.

"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.

"(If) you don't start well, you get what you deserve really."

As it stands, Bailey is on thin ice, conceding the pressure on him will increase over the coming week after his team's inept display.

"I think when the game gets analysed and you get beaten by the amount we did with the way we played today, I think that's the nature of the business we're in," Bailey said.

And should the Demons fail to make any meaningful inroads over the next five games, where they will face Adelaide, North Melbourne, St Kilda, Carlton and Essendon - all in Melbourne - the fourth-year coach could be as good as gone.

High-flyers Collingwood and Fremantle await Melbourne after that period but Bailey said the season shouldn't be broken down into little bits.

"The season's over 22 weeks, so we'll wait and see at the end of the year to see how the season pans out.

"But our immediacy is to get on the front foot at training and make sure our performance next week is a lot better than what we produced today."

Melbourne have two wins and a draw from five games.

But those wins came against easybeats Brisbane (11 points) and Gold Coast (90) points, with their draw against Sydney probably their most creditable performance of the year thus far.

Ruckman Mark Jamar, defender Colin Garland, midfielder Nathan Jones and youngster Jack Watts battled valiantly against the Eagles, but the quartet received little support from their teammates.

Melbourne showed great potential in posting eight wins and a draw last year, leading many pundits to predict a finals finish in 2011.

But Bailey was non-committal when asked whether he needed to re-assess where the current crop of players at his disposal were headed.

"We need to get back on the training track and not only get confidence on the training track but lift our intensity," he said.

"And we need to make sure the players we roll out next week are ... clear in their objectives about the tackling and the chasing and the pressure that they need to do."

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