Mark Neeld is under pressure. Picture: Ludbey Wayne Source: HWT Image Library
MELBOURNE'S misery deepened and the blowtorch will be further turned up on embattled coach Mark Neeld after it crashed to its greatest losing margin against a remorseless Essendon.
The Demons were smashed by 148 points at the MCG - their worst result against the Bombers and the 20th greatest margin in AFL-VFL history.
It was also Essendon's highest score against Melbourne as the Bombers slammed home 28 goals to five, including an embarrassing 15 to one in the second half.
Live HQ: Essendon v Melbourne
Melbourne now faces premiership contenders West Coast at the MCG on Saturday, with some suggesting a crunch game against Greater Western Sydney at the same venue in a fortnight could determine Neeld's future at the club.
Triple M commentator Nathan Brown suggested that Neeld would be replaced if the Demons lose to the Giants.
"If Melbourne lose that game, I don't think Mark Neeld will be there," Brown said. "They (Melbourne) have had some dark days ... but this is the darkest.
Demons v Bombers, MCG, Picture: Ludbey Wayne Source:
"It was (all about) effort, laziness, intent, or whether you give a stuff about your footy club." Already under pressure after last week's massive first round loss to Port Adelaide, the Demons could offer no resistance to the Bombers, and have now lost by a collective 227 points in the first two weeks of the season.
Neeld said after the loss: "there is only one way out of this ... and that's to stick together and to work hard.
"There is only one way out of this and it is together.
"The whole club is hurting."
"We can't pretend the last two hours didn't exist. We've all got to man up - or person up, whatever the term is and accept that."
Neeld had used his pre-game speech to his players last night - screened on Channel Seven's Saturday Night Footy telecast - to implore his players to trust one another as much as the coaching staff trusted them.
He urged his players to back themselves and take the game up to the Bombers - a team that the Demons managed to beat last year. But there was little sign of that trust - or belief in one another - at any stage of last night's whitewash.
Neeld is only two games into the second year of a three-year deal, but the club has only won four games from the 24 contest, with the last coming against GWS in Round 21 last year.
Coach Co-captain Jack Grimes said the players were "absolutely gutted".
"The feelings late in the game, I admit, were not great," he told Channel 7.
"(In the rooms after the match) there wasn't much said about the game.
"It was about sticking together because the worst thing that can happen at a time like this is for the group to fracture but that definitely won't happen.
Essendon coach James Hird admitted that he felt for Neeld last night following the massive loss.
"Mark is a good coach, and he will get his team back on track," Hird said.
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