MELBOURNE president Jim Stynes was headed back to his hospital bed on Saturday night, proud of the effort his players brought to the MCG after an extremely trying seven days. 

Stynes won a miniscule battle in his fight against cancer the morning of the game when doctors allowed him to be discharged from hospital to be at the ground for caretaker coach and former teammate Todd Viney's first game at the helm.

While the Demons went down by 76 points after being blown away in an eight-goal-to-none second quarter, Stynes was proud of their endeavour and attitude.

He said their spirit was a reflection of the way Viney played the game himself.

"Obviously there's been a lot of pressure [this week] but I must admit, I'm very proud of the players today," he said the rooms afterwards.

"I don’t think the score reflected the way we played.

"Unfortunately we didn't kick straight early on but the boys gave it their all, and even though we were a couple of guys short, they just kept going every step of the way.

"It would have been easy to get five or 10 [goals] kicked [against us] in the last quarter and just fall over but they just kept going, even though they were a couple of players short."

Stynes said he felt better than he had during the week, and had "got a bit of a break" on Saturday morning when the tumour in his stomach - which he is scheduled to be operated on next week - stopped bleeding.

Viney, who commenced his playing career at Melbourne in the same season as Stynes and played with him for 12 years, said the presence of the gravely-ill, 264-game player did wonders for the entire club.

"It's just amazing. I just hope everyone recognises it; the players, and just seeing him keep defying the odds and showing resilience," he said.

"We keep on talking about resilience in our footy club and he's just the ultimate role model in resilience.

"It's amazing that he's here today, he's been in hospital, he's quite ill, but I certainly got a lift seeing him here.

"When you see him in there after the game, thinking, 'Well, it's been a 76-point loss and I'm in charge now', and Jimmy rocks in, you think there's people worse off with more concerns than 76 points.

"It gives us a lot of strength in that area."

Club captain Brad Green agreed it had been an incredible effort for Stynes to arrive the MCG, and was moved by his passion for the club.

"He's an amazing character. Just to be out there on Monday with a press conference, he didn't look good to me let alone how he's feeling," he said.

"He's an inspiration and just to see him … I think he just loves the football club and you see him there kicking the footy with his son, and there are moments like that he'll treasure."