THEIR FOCUS heading into the game was to celebrate all the team’s efforts and that’s exactly what the Demons did on Thursday night.

Melbourne notched up an all-important win over the Brisbane Lions at the ‘G, with midfielder Christian Petracca highlighting the group’s on-field spirit as a catalyst for the victory.

“We’re feeling great after a tough three weeks and to get a win against a quality opposition,” Petracca told Melbourne Media post-match.

“We went in there with a game plan of just to have fun and to celebrate the little things and I thought the team spirit today was awesome.”

The match was particularly integral for Melbourne's 2022 campaign, with the team coming into the game off the back of three consecutive losses. 

Petracca explained that the group's aim heading into the top-of-the-table clash was perfecting what they knew was already working. 

“Our focus was to refine what we’ve been doing really well,” Petracca said.

“We felt like defensively the last three weeks we’ve been playing really well.

"Offensively we haven’t been great, so for us we just needed to get the ball back in our hands and I thought tonight, Bedford, Spargs, Kozzy, Neal-Bullen were unbelievable in that."

At the first break of the Thursday night game Melbourne were trailing by six points, but had faith in their game and their ability to switch the momentum back into their favour. 

“We were down, but we were plus 30 in the contest and Goody told us that the game was looking okay, but to just be a bit more clean when we’re going forward, use our numbers, test the tackle a bit more," Petracca said. 

“I feel like the pressure up forward was awesome and, in this game, once you get a bit of momentum, it’s really hard to stop and I thought we did a really good job at that."