MELBOURNE’S first round one win since 2005 was a significant boost for the players and the club overall, according to coach Paul Roos.

Speaking post-match after Melbourne’s 26-point win over the Gold Coast Suns at the MCG, Roos said it important for the club to start strongly after a tough recent era.

“When you're a club where we're at – any win is a great win,” he said.

“Going into the season full of hope – every club does so – but by the season's finish no one remembers round one. It's good to win for our club and the style of footy we played was really important.

“We really defended well last year ... but to get that offence helps your defence, so the style of play was good. Winning for this club is great – it's great for the players and to see them singing the song.”

Roos said the fact Melbourne booted 17 goals and cracked 100 points was another big step in the side’s development.

“We've worked a lot on being a good two-way running team,” he said.

“We felt we addressed our defensive issues last year, but struggled with the ball in hand, so today was really good. It was a good balance – particularly the half-time score when they'd only scored three goals.

“They (Gold Coast) got away in the second half with 10 [goals], but they're very talented. So we need to address some of that, but the balance was pretty good today.”

Meanwhile, Roos backed former co-captain Jack Grimes to bounce back after he was named an emergency for the season’s opener. 

“We want to get all of our players up to a standard where they can play AFL footy. For Grimesy, it's just about getting him back to enjoying his footy again. It's been a tough time for him as captain and with what the team's been through,” he said.

“When you're dropping players it's not always necessarily for form, but we really tried to pick a team that we thought would be the best 22 today over the course of the four-week period of the NAB Challenge.

“There are still some really important players that aren't playing for us who we'll coach hard and make sure they get up a level where we can perform regularly like we did today.”