THERE were some more "nerve-racking" moments for Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin on Saturday night, but this time there was no repeat of last week's heartbreaking loss to Geelong.
Leading Adelaide by 31 points and seemingly in control at the last change, the Demons were suddenly hanging on when a Taylor Walker set shot drew the Crows within eight points with three minutes remaining.
DEE-LIGHT Full match coverage and stats
But this time Melbourne was up to the challenge with some desperate defending and an Alex Neal-Bullen major sealing the result.
Goodwin said the coaches had built the players back up again to "really want that moment" after last week's after-the-siren loss to the Cats.
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"That was a really gut-wrenching result last week in how it happened," he said.
"We'd obviously learnt some stuff during the week about how we wanted to manage those situations better and I thought the boys executed the majority of the things well although there's still more stuff we can do.
"There was a bit of emotion in the box clearly. It's been a pretty big week for our coaching staff, they've done a terrific job in building our playing group back up."
The match was won in a dominant seven-goal third quarter, with five of those majors coming in a blistering 15-minute period.
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Goodwin said the team's ability to pile on the goals has been a weapon for some time.
"I think it gives us confidence that when we play the way we want to play, there's periods in the game that we will score – it's probably been a strength of ours throughout the year that we can kick goals quickly," he said.
"We are naturally a relatively high-scoring team so that gives the group confidence that if they are in the game for long enough, and they keep working hard, that eventually we may have our moment to score."
WATCH Simon Goodwin's full post-match media conference
The thrilling end to the contest raised a question about how possible rule changes could've affected the outcome – the proposed 6-6-6 starting positions would've stopped the Demons getting numbers behind the ball during Adelaide's comeback.
But Goodwin said defensive tactics would still play a part in close matches.
"I think there's just been way too much talk in general about rule changes," he said.
"We'll find a way to get it done and the coaches will evolve and come up with some different ideas of how we can get our defensive mechanism in place late in games."
