MELBOURNE looks likely to persist with playing two ruckmen after the successful introduction of former Roo Braydon Preuss into the side.

Preuss played his first game for the Demons in the team's 22-point win over Sydney on Thursday night.

Coach Simon Goodwin said despite Preuss spending most of his time as a deep forward, the assistance he provided to number one ruck Max Gawn was invaluable.

The Demons destroyed the Swans in the hitouts, winning the tally 73 to 13 with Gawn recording 55 of his own.

However, it took Melbourne some time to capitalise on the ruckwork, only getting on top in the clearances in the third term.

"We picked the two ruckmen for a reason, we wanted to keep the intensity around the ball and continue that ruck dominance," Goodwin said.

"Our midfield coaches Justin Plapp and Ben Mathews made some adjustments throughout the first quarter and they took a while to kick in, but we started to get some real dominance around the ball."

Goodwin said Preuss was a "presence" for the side.

"He straightened us up down forward, he's a big man so you kick it into him and he's going to be a handful for a lot of teams.

"He just enabled us to keep the heat on around the ball for a little bit longer and support 'Gawny'. Gawny's done a power of work for us for over a year now with not a lot of support, so it was great to see Braydon come in, play his role incredibly well and give a great target.

"I wouldn't see why we wouldn't (stick with both), I'd be assuming that'd be the way forward for us."

Goodwin said after a winless first three rounds of the season, the team was determined to come away with the four points.

"You get to a point when you're zero and three where enough's enough and we want to play our brand of footy.

"As I said, the first step for us was to get back to defending in our way, hunting opposition in contest areas, and it was a step forward for us.

"We still have a lot of work to do, right now is how much can we improve and how can we get better? [The players] were adamant right from the start of the week they wanted to improve the defensive part of their game, and they did that."

Goodwin said key defender Oscar McDonald suffered a concussion, while late withdrawal Jake Lockhart (back spasm while putting on his footy boots on Wednesday) will be fit for next week's match against St Kilda.

Fellow late withdrawal Neville Jetta (knee soreness) is a "wait and see" situation.