Mark Neeld made redundant as Essendon moves to restructure its coaching group

ESSENDON’s season hit crisis point on Monday with strategy coach Mark Neeld sacked and All-Australian defender Michael Hurley out of Saturday’s clash against Geelong.

Mark Neeld has quit Essendon. Pic: AFL Media

ESSENDON’S season hit crisis point with strategy coach Mark Neeld sacked and All-Australian Michael Hurley out of Saturday’s clash against Geelong.

The Bombers made the extraordinary decision to move on game performance coach Neeld after only eight rounds as a clear circuit-breaker.

The club pitched it as an amicable departure after a 2-6 win-loss tally, saying Neeld had a “broader interest in sports administration”.

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But the Herald Sun understands he was sacked and paid out his contract, telling friends he was effectively made redundant.

Neeld was the main strategy boss alongside game intelligence coach/opposition strategy coach Rob Harding.

Essendon’s game plan had been heavily criticised and Neeld had set up a highly unusual coaches box match-day plan.

Essendon coach John Worsfold with Mark Neeld. Pic: Michael Klein

Three separate sources have confirmed that line coaches were not encouraged to talk directly to coach John Worsfold during play.

Instead the likes of backline coach Mark Harvey and midfield coach Hayden Skipworth had to throw up ideas to Neeld, who would relay them to Worsfold.

It is understood Hurley will miss several weeks with a hamstring strain suffered in the loss to Carlton, with Essendon yet to confirm that development.

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But he spent the last eight minutes of last weekend’s loss to Carlton on the bench with the game in the balance and pulled up sore this week.

Essendon chief executive Xavier Campbell confirmed the club would reward some of their younger VFL players with games against Geelong on Saturday.

Uncapped midfielder Dylan Clarke (36 possessions) was best-afield, followed by Aaron Francis, Jackson Merrett, Jordan Ridley and Kyle Langford.

It came as Campbell hit out at the Essendon fan who burnt a Bombers scarf after the loss as disrespectful to the playing group and Essendon’s 147-year history.

Saturday marked the 5000th day since Essendon’s last finals win, as club legend Matthew Lloyd said the Bombers were no longer a “great club”.

The Bombers will not replace Neeld, who was an elite assistant coach before being sacked with a 5-28 record in his second season as Melbourne senior coach.

“It is an opportunity to create greater clarity and alignment in the coaching group,” Campbell said.

“Things aren’t going as well as we would like and the opportunity to readjust is something really important at this time.

“We are not where we would like to be, make no mistake about that. But for us we have to look at what we can control and how we build this back up so we can build the belief back into our football team.

“We are not going to sit on our hands, we want to get this club firing and to the level this club is capable of.”

He said fans burning club flags was simply unacceptable.

Michael Hurley will miss time with a hamstring injury.

“I draw the line there, that is disrespectful not just to this current playing group but to the 147-year history of this football club and I would hop our fans and members feel the same way I do.”

Essendon could replace Hurley with one of key defenders Mitch Brown, Michael Hartley or Matt Dea given Geelong has a battery of marking forwards including Tom Hawkins, Stewart Crameri and Patrick Dangerfield.

Francis, easing back into football after an extended break with mental health issues, was Essendon’s second-best player in their VFL win over Sandringham.

But it is not known if the Bombers are prepared to throw him back into the senior team so quickly upon his return to VFL football.

He has now played two full games at AFL level after winning eight possessions the previous week at half-back.

The selection blowtorch has been applied to Jake Stringer, Darcy Parish and Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti after recent poor performances.

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Originally published as Mark Neeld made redundant as Essendon moves to restructure its coaching group