DESPITE his best efforts Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin couldn’t keep a lid on his pride and excitement over his team’s effort on Saturday night.

The Demons recorded one of their most memorable wins in 15 seasons, coming from 28 points behind during the second-quarter to beat ladder-leader Adelaide by 41 points at Adelaide Oval.

“I just thought the boys tonight were just terrific,’’ Goodwin said.

The stunning 69-point turnaround came despite the club not fielding a recognised ruckman, and conceding a hit-out deficit of 47.

The Demons tackled relentlessly and stunned Adelaide with its pressure to pile on eight unanswered goal during the second and third terms en route to a remarkably easy win.

Goodwin said the side was still “developing” and described the effort as just another step in the right direction.

“It just continues to build some belief about the pathway forward of what we are trying to create,’’ Goodwin said.

“We’re still a developing team and we are still developing into the team we want to become.”

But this Melbourne outfit looked closer to the finished product, playing more of a hardened finals brand of football than a developing side, and Goodwin couldn’t hide his pride in the effort.

“To be 24 points down, and to fight back and to win like that was really pleasing ... I thought our tackling pressure as a team just went through the roof and we willed our way back into the game.”

Goodwin admitted to paying close attention to the way North Melbourne brought Adelaide undone the previous weekend.

For the second straight week, Crow Rory Sloane was tagged, and Goodwin complimented 200-gamer Bernie Vince on the stopping job.

Pressure and a desire to stop the Crows’ corridor ball-movement were also seemingly focusses the Demons borrowed from the Kangaroos’ playbook.

“We’ve got an enormous amount of respect for Rory Sloane,’’ Goodwin said.

“Bernie in his 200th, we just thought it was a really good match-up to try to tag Rory.

“There were certain things we took out of that game. When a side has a great result like North Melbourne did, you look at how they went about it. We looked to implement some of those things, but also to play the brand we want to play."

Outside of a 20-minute patch of football from late in the first term to midway through the second quarter, the Demons conceded just three goals against the high-scoring Crows. Goodwin said his backline was enormous and he also complimented his forwards and midfield for applying pressure and preventing Adelaide’s run off half-back.  

With the game slipping away during the second term and Adelaide’s Sam Jacobs dominating in the ruck, Goodwin made some structural changes which proved vital in turning around the result.

“We probably thought Cam Pedersen was giving us a little bit more around the ground,’’ Goodwin said.

“We sent Tommy McDonald forward and played ‘Pedo’ (Pedersen) and ‘Wattsy’ (Jack Watts) in the ruck.

“It probably helped both ways. It helped us in the ruck a little bit, and also with Tom forward he gave us a really good target inside 50.”

Jayden Hunt was knocked out during the third term after a clash with Jacobs. Goodwin said the half-back was moving around in the rooms and in good spirits.