Melbourne crave consistency and Essendon badly need a successful road trip in the wake of Friday night's AFL clash.

The Demons' 33-point win over Essendon at the MCG came after a tough few days for Melbourne coach Dean Bailey and his players.

Bailey was pumping his fists on the boundary line before the final siren and then ran out onto the ground after the match to share the moment with the team, reflecting the importance of this win.

But he later agreed that one win was nowhere near enough for the Demons, now one game outside the top eight.

After thrashing Adelaide by almost 100 points, Melbourne had lost their past three games before the upset win over Essendon.

They have a 10-day break before facing Collingwood in their annual Queen's Birthday holiday Monday clash.

"There are better moments coming, but (Friday night) was important, just because of what's happened in the last two or three weeks," Bailey said.

"We were challenged and the great thing about our players when they were challenged (on Friday night), they dug deep.

"(It's) a good call - it's next week's game, we want to get off this rollercoaster we're on.

"We want to be consistent, we don't want to be inconsistent, so that's always going to be the challenge for us."

By contrast, the Bombers have lost their past two matches and are in a mid-season slump.

They are set to regain captain Jobe Watson and tall utility Michael Hurley for next Sunday's Perth game against Fremantle but, overall, Essendon have lost their spark.

They also have been poor on the road in recent seasons and have won only one of their past 10 games in Perth.

"We've struggled in Perth and we've struggled interstate, so every game for us is a big test and a learning experience," said coach James Hird.

"We go to Perth now in need of a win because of where we've put ourselves with the last two losses.

"I've been in footy a long time and you have down periods.

"Now we have to come out of that as quickly as we possibly can, so that we get to playing really confident football and defending the way we want to defend, week-in, week-out.

"We haven't done that in the last two weeks."

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