MELBOURNE coach Mark Neeld has wanted to see incremental signs of improvement in his first year in the job and he found one on Saturday - his first road victory.

The Demons were never seriously troubled by Greater Western Sydney as they eased to a 25-point win at Manuka Oval.

It was Melbourne's first win on the road since beating Port Adelaide in Darwin in round 17 last year.

In the past three seasons, the club boasts just four total wins outside Melbourne - two against Port in Darwin and two against the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba.

"Today we felt we had an opportunity to win a game away from Melbourne, which in the past has been really difficult for our club," Neeld told reporters after the game.

"We set ourselves some targets and we met some of them, some of the work rate and our one-percenters.

"That's pleasing and we can take that out of the game.

"GWS got a sniff of victory towards the end perhaps, their pressure caused us to over-use the footy, but we'll take a win interstate."

Neeld had to face a barrage of criticism earlier in the year as his Demons seemingly swayed from one crisis to the next.

But he feels he is beginning to see the fruits of his labour.

"There's a lot of alarmist media reporting that goes on and you guys have your role to play," he said.

"We know a lot of people that watch the game only have 'seven day goggles' on.

"Writing about long-term plans is clearly not sexy, but we've clearly made some gains over the second half of the year, there's no doubt.

"Our ball movement, our work at the clearances, the way we're defending - there's some improvement there."

Another undoubted success story of the season has been the form of excitement machine Jeremy Howe.

Howe takes a contender for mark of the year virtually every time he takes to the field, while he also produced 17 possessions, seven tackles and 3.3 against the Giants.

Neeld is happy with Howe's progress, but laughed when he was asked if the 22-year-old had a licence to launch himself wherever he likes during games.

"Oh no, not at all," Neeld said.

"It's very clear, it doesn't matter what sport you're playing, the best players do the basics better than everyone else.

"Then if you have some special talents, they can rise to the top then.

"We know that Jeremy has some great talents, but go through history and the best players at this game do the basics better than everyone else regularly.

"He needs a lot of coaching."

James Dampney covers AFL news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_JD