MELBOURNE has held on for a thrilling one point victory over Port Adelaide in front of 9000 fans at TIO Stadium on Saturday night.
The Demons' 17.9 (111) to 16.14 (110) win was the perfect introduction to a three-year premiership stay in the Top End.
More importantly for Dean Bailey and his coaching staff it moved Melbourne to within a game of the top eight after a rushed behind by the Power's Jack Trengrove secured the four points. The third year Melbourne coach had another reason to smile when the timekeeper applied pressure to the siren button - it was his first win as the Demons' boss away from the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
The Power erased a 33 point deficit at three quarter-time to hit the front before Brad Green levelled the scores at the 30th minute.
Jack Trengove punched the ball through Melbourne's goal after a bounce in the goal square with less than a minute remaining to register the game winning point.
Brad Miller starred up forward for the Dees with five goals and James Bennell four, including a gem in the last quarter. It was much the same story in the first half as Melbourne started each quarter strongly only for Port to reel them in late.
Port Adelaide had as much of the ball as the Dees and generated nearly as many inside 50s but lacked the polish up forward.
That was all about to change in the last as Travis Boak and Jay Schulz got the ball rolling with the first two, before Brad Green steadied the Dees with a quick reply.
Port weren't done with yet and booted the next four goals to hit the lead deep into the quarter through David Rodan, as he pounced on a loose ball from a boundary throw in.
Green levelled scores in the dying stages before Trengove registered the point when Mark Jamar's mark in the goal square was deemed touched resulting in a ball up.
Melbourne under Bailey has never won a match outside the MCG and he was happy to get the monkey off his back in Darwin.
"I think when you compete well away that's really important (in) the travel factor," he said. "The momentum was against us for 10 or 15 minutes (and) we couldn't get the ball, everything they touched turned to gold. We just hung in there. It's not often you get 8 goals kicked against you (in a quarter) but to our guys' credit they hung in there and hung in there and when the game needed a couple of good decisions to be made our boys had some composure in the end."
Although his players staged a remarkable comeback Port coach Mark Williams wasn't in a forgiving mood for the effort in the first three quarters.
"I thought we played terrible. All credit to Melbourne I thought they began the quarters brilliantly and we were chasing trying to make something up all night," he said.