Why Melbourne coach Mark Neeld was fighting for his job

SACKED Melbourne coach Mark Neeld has endured a tumultuous 18 months at the helm. See where it all went wrong.

SACKED Melbourne coach Mark Neeld has endured a tumultuous 18 months at the helm. Scroll down to see where it all went wrong.

TOO HARD TOO SOON

No good cop, it was all bad cop from day one. Brad Green was dumped from the captaincy and then wasn't even included in the leadership group before being forced into retirement.

Best-and-fairest winner Brent Moloney thought he was the next captain but instead was on the outer, in the reserves mid-year and gone three months later.

Liam Jurrah and Aaron Davey struggled with the new direction while the coach was also quick to write off a number of fringe players such as Stefan Martin, Cale Morton and Jordan Gysberts.

Jack Grimes

CAPTAINCY

Appointed the youngest captain in the history of the game in Jack Trengove, which has been a disaster.

The kid virtually hasn't got a kick since while his co-captain Jack Grimes has also been missing because of injury.

Says the decision was player driven and based on training attitudes but clearly hasn't worked.

David Rodan

MONEYBALL

Targeted senior players with successful backgrounds to help drive culture change.

Problem is many of them haven't delivered on-field. David Rodan, Tom Gillies, Shannon Byrnes, Cameron Pederson and James Sellar have failed to live up to expectations.

Paid big money for Chris Dawes and Mitch Clark but midfield has been left wanting.

DEVELOPMENT

Garry Lyon said the most worrying aspect of the Demons' decline is the lack of player development. Neeld's coaching staff is trusted with fuelling players' confidence but many have gone backwards.

James Frawley, Jack Watts, Mark Jamar and Jack Trengove are shadows of their former selves.

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GAME PLAN

Neeld has taken all flair out of the previous game plan and turned it into something that looks straight out of Collingwood playbook when under Mick Malthouse.

There's a lot of focus on contested ball and long kicking down the line. Hard to win clearances when the midfield is so depleted.

Clearly some players who left the club last year did not want to abide by the new rules.

MAN MANAGEMENT

Came in with a big stick to change the culture and straight away whacked the senior core who quickly became disillusioned.

The hard line approach split the playing group and made his task of implementing a new gameplan difficult.

Had to be counselled by club management about softening his stance after the first 12 months.

Mark Neeld

PUBLIC PERSONA

Neeld had looked uncomfortable in front of the cameras, at times talking in circles. More recently we heard him repeat the terms "developing side'' and "re-build of a re-build''.

His view that it could take the Dees up to five years to mature into a competitive side caught players by surprise, including Mitch Clark.

FOOTBALL DEPARTMENT

There was much fanfare about the crew Neeld got around him including ex-Adelaide coach Neil Craig and fitness guru David Misson.

Craig was supposed to help Neeld through the early days of his coaching career but clearly that hasn't worked while the elite training standards Misson was bringing haven't been sighted with second-half fade-outs seemingly every week.

New chief executive Peter Jackson described the football department set-up as a rabble.

BACKGROUND

Neeld was highly recommended by Michael Malthouse.

The old Melbourne was perceived as soft and Neeld's hard-line stance was meant to stamp out bad habits and make the team hard to play against.

His resume had gold stars all over it. A former school teacher, Neeld was lauded for his role at Collingwood, helping tighten the backline and develop the midfielders into A-Graders.

Before that he coached Ocean Grove to four straight flags in the Bellarine Football League and guided Western Jets to the TAC Cup finals for the first time.