Melbourne coach Dean Bailey is urging his players to embrace the emotion surrounding club president Jim Stynes' fight for life, while staying focused on Saturday's immediate task - achieving a win over West Coast at the MCG.

Bailey conceded that he faces a delicate balancing act in his preparation of the Demons who are still coming to terms with Stynes' revelation on Thursday that he's battling cancer that's invaded several sites in his body.

Speaking at Junction Oval after a bright and breezy training session on Friday morning Bailey said the president's plight was sure to be raised in a team meeting scheduled for later in the day and before the game on Saturday.

"The emotion side of it is going to be the real key - we don't want the players to have played the game before they get there," Bailey said.

"The emotion's going to be there for the events around Jim but we've got to make sure our focus, our direction is on winning contested ball and winning the game."

"It's there and we don't want to overstate it but we don't want to understate it because Jimmy's been such a revelation to the club."

"We do need to rally around him and support him but the way the players can do it is to really perform well."

Asked whether the players would be urged on Saturday to 'win it for Jim', Bailey said: "All Melbourne supporters would expect the team now to have a crack on Saturday for all the emotion but also for the reasons of winning."

"Our players need to do it for everyone ... not just for Jim, Jim's part of it, but for everyone."

"The added emotion, we need to ensure that we embrace that, but actually play the game."

Bailey said he believed his players had responded positively to being required to jump off the pier at Middle Park and negotiate the freezing waters of Port Phillip Bay not once, but twice, earlier in the week as punishment for their poor recent form.

Several Demons were reportedly unhappy about being ordered to return to the water for a second dousing after the team's review of the loss to Brisbane at the Gabba.

"I think it's always a challenge when once they thought they've done something, that's the swim out of the way and now the review's out of the way, then 'oh no, we've got the swim again'," said Bailey.

"It's more a matter of keeping them on the job, saying 'we're not happy with where we're at and there's a minimum standard that you must get to and, at the moment, we're not at that'."

"The training is a reflection of that - you've got to dig and get more out of yourself and the extras you've got to do we expect to happen."

"Those sorts of things can really challenge players ... none of them would have liked to have done it."

Bailey said the Demons' ball use would determine whether they can repeat the win they achieved over the Eagles the last time the teams met at the MCG in Round 20 last season.