New Melbourne coach Mark Neeld has defended the culture at the AFL club after the Demons were strongly criticised by his old boss Mick Malthouse.

Neeld has had a tough start to his senior coaching career, with Melbourne suffering three heavy losses.

Malthouse said the Demons had been a club that was about anything other than football, but Neeld would not deviate from his expectations.

Neeld worked as an assistant coach under Malthouse at Collingwood until the end of last season.

Neeld said he was pleased with the team’s morale, despite their bad start to the year.

“The culture of the Melbourne footy club is pretty strong, the core of the player list are working really hard, their morale is good, the way they train is pretty good and we are expecting higher standards,” Neeld said on Monday.

Asked about how the club was working when he arrived late last year, Neeld replied: “I didn’t notice any problems at all.”

But Neeld refused point blank to comment on the growing tensions at Collingwood.

Malthouse was replaced by Nathan Buckley at the end of the 2011 season as part of a long-term succession plan.

Malthouse is now a high-profile media commentator and he has exchanged some sharp criticisms with Collingwood president Eddie McGuire in the wake of Friday night’s 10-goal loss to Carlton.

Neeld was twice asked at Monday’s media conference about the Collingwood situation and he said there was no way he would enter into that discussion.