MELBOURNE coach Dean Bailey says his side's 34-point win over West Coast at the MCG on Saturday was a pleasing result for its fans that have been doing it tough this season.

The Demons recorded just their third win of the year – their first against West Coast since round seven, 2004 – and Bailey said it was a small reward for the red and blue faithful who have stuck by the club.

"It's important that our members and our supporters and our people who continually come to our games this year in a really tough year – it's nice that we can repay them to some degree – not that we've repaid them often during the year, obviously," Bailey said post-match.

"The big test was coming to be how we bounced back from last week and to the boys' credit, they worked hard during the week and they were really determined to come today and really try and wash away last week's effort.

"Hopefully our supporters and members will walk around with half-a-smile on their face, anyway, for the next week until we play Port Adelaide, but they've been with us for the whole year and they've gone though the tough times as much as we have.

"So as much as it was a real test today, it is in some way a pay-back to the people who have been persistent and have come to watch all of our games and I think that's where it really lies."

Although West Coast got the jump on Melbourne – leading by 18 points early in the second term – the Demons hit back strongly to kick 10 of the last 11 goals of the match.

Bailey noted that after some over-handballing to begin the contest, the team hit back strongly.

"I thought we fought really hard and it got to half-time and it was a matter of if we could persist in the second half," Bailey said.

"They were able to do it and the result tells the story."

Bailey said he was able to savour moments of Melbourne's win.

"Probably because of the situation, we were able to probably relax a little bit more in the box, because we had a couple of minutes to go and obviously we were well in front enough to win the game," he said.

The coach also confirmed it would be ruck-forward Paul Johnson's last match of the season.

"He'll have a hip operation, which is disappointing, but they take a while to get over hips, so in he goes," Bailey said.