Melbourne coach Mark Neeld has arrived at the AFL club’s board meeting which could decide his future.
Neeld arrived at the MCG shortly before 2pm (AEST) on Monday, accompanied by Demons director of sports performance Neil Craig, player development manager Todd Viney and football manager Josh Mahoney.
Demons president Don McLardy, who along with his fellow directors arrived several hours earlier, gave no indication before the meeting of whether the club planned to stick with Neeld.
“It’s a board meeting, mate, it’s been scheduled all year,” McLardy told the AFL website.
“No other expectations.”
While there is speculation Neeld faces the sack, the embattled coach told reporters after Sunday’s 95-point thrashing from Hawthorn he still had confidence he was taking the club down the right path.
He said if given the chance to make his case to the board, he would urge them to stay with him.
“We’ve got a really clear vision of where we’re going, we’ve got a really clear pathway that we’re following and we haven’t hidden that from anybody,” Neeld said.
“We believe we’re assembling a really good list that will take us forward.
“We’re not hiding from the fact that we’re particularly upset to get beaten by that much.
“But we’re realistic as well, we’re running around with a development team, a dozen or so guys under 50 games.
“We want to get better than that, but I think most people are pretty realistic.”
The loss to the Hawks was the seventh time in 10 games this year Melbourne have lost by 60 points or more.
Their only win has come against bottom-placed Greater Western Sydney and even in that game they were trailing at the last change.
Neeld has guided the club to five wins in his 32 games in charge.