Four-time premiership mentor Leigh Matthews says Melbourne’s rookie coach Mark Neeld needs to make some big changes to the way he handles the media.
Neeld was savage in his criticism of his players following their 41-point AFL loss to Brisbane at the MCG in Saturday’s round-one match at the MCG.
Neeld forecast players would be dropped for Saturday’s trip to Perth to play West Coast.
“Am I going to go down a similar road and continue to put blind faith in players? No way,” Neeld told his post-match press conference.
Matthews says Neeld should think hard about the impact his comments to the media might have on his players.
“As a coach you’ve got to be so careful you don’t say anything you don’t want to say to your players, because your players will hear it in the press conference,” Matthews told Radio 3AW on Monday.
“So that’s rule number one.
“Rule number two: don’t say `I’, say `we’. `I’ is about me and my ego.
“It’s so much better to say `we won’t accept that’, `we won’t do this’. Make it a collective rather than an `I’.
“Mark under the pressure of the occasion, his first time in the press conference, Melbourne had a bad day at the footy and I thought the `I’ word popped out a little too much.”
Neeld told Fox Footy’s “On The Couch” program on Monday night he was unaware how many times he’d said the word `I’.
But Neeld added: “I’ll learn. I’ve only coached one game.”
The rookie coach admitted he was furious during the press conference.
“It was probably a mix of anger and disappointment,” he said.
“I can get a little bit fiery at times. That’s part of my personality.
“I’ve calmed down.
“I gave (assistant coach) Neil Craig a bit of a whack this afternoon in a comical way because part of his role is to get to me before I get to that press conference to actually give me a word of advice and remind me who I’m talking to.
“I want to be honest.
“I got some advice from `Craigy’ today who said that’s great but you’ve got be aware that if you’re going to be too honest then people are going to be back you into a corner and it’s going to be a disaster for you at times.
“I can’t get it back. I still don’t think I said anything completely outrageous.”