MELBOURNE star forward Jesse Hogan has pulled up "fine" despite hobbling through the second half of the Demons' 36-point victory over Essendon at Etihad Stadium, coach Simon Goodwin says.

Hogan went into Sunday's match with a sore knee and copped a knock to the same spot, while he also rolled his right ankle in a marking contest in the third term that saw him forced from the field for a brief period.

The key forward returned to the ground later in the third quarter and finished the day with two goals from eight disposals.

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"He's got a little knock in his knee, he had one coming into the game and he got another one in the same spot," Goodwin said.

"He's a little bit sore but he'll be fine. I thought he contributed strongly – he had a bit of work done at half-time, he got it bandaged up, but I thought he came out and played a role for us after half-time."

The Demons fought through a scrappy opening half, which yielded just nine goals between the two sides, with Goodwin noting to his players at half-time that the tide would eventually turn.

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"Our second half resembled the way we want to play. Our hunt and our pressure and our contested work and clearance work came back and we obviously started to connect better with the ball," Goodwin said.

"That made a massive difference to us in the end. We acknowledge that Essendon had to come off a four-day break, but it was a step in the right direction for us last week and I thought today we carried that through."

The much-improved performance against the Bombers comes off the back of consecutive losses to Hawthorn and Richmond, which saw the Demons receive plenty of external criticism.

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"Things take time. There's some things that we've worked on over the summer that's helped us play a forward half game and there's some things that we'll continue to work on through the year," Goodwin said.

"You've got to continue to test and learn in this game. Learn from what you do – whether it's good or bad and make it better and tinker and as a club and as a team we're starting to build some things – certainly around the footy and behind the ball that are going to help create some good habits for us throughout the whole year."

Melbourne finally made the most of star ruckman Max Gawn's dominance, after it failed to do so in recent weeks, winning the centre clearances 16-4 and the overall clearances (38-28).

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"We've been working with our midfielders over the last couple of weeks on their connection and how we can improve that," Goodwin said

"Our midfield coaches in Justin Plapp and Ben Mathews have done an enormous amount of work under not much of a timeframe (five-day break) to actually build that connection."

The Demons also got eight goals between debutant Charlie Spargo, Mitch Hannan and Bayley Fritsch who breathed new life into the forward line with their aggressive attack on the contest.

Goodwin praised his defence for holding Essendon to 72 points, particularly singling out Oscar McDonald for his job on Joe Daniher and Neville Jetta for returning to his best form.

Oscar McDonald kept Daniher goalless, while Jetta had 12 intercept possessions, including five intercept marks, to lead all players on the ground.

"We've identified Oscar as a player we want to be a key position player for us so we've continued to play him," Goodwin said.

"But he's got to hold up his end of the bargain as well and continue to improve and win those contests against some really important forwards and he's been able to do that this year.

"He was incredible today Nev. He won a lot of critical contests in one-on-one situations or got over to help his teammates at really critical moments."