The Melbourne coach has endured a shocking week after the club lost to Essendon by 148 points, following a 79-point loss to Port Adelaide in round one.
Club CEO Cameron Schwab was asked to resign on Tuesday and the media spotlight has been on Neeld and the club's board all week.
The players and football department spent Tuesday night in the beachside town of Sorrento in an effort to reboot their season.
"What they went through last Saturday night is not good, not nice and I've got to give them some direction," Neeld said.
Neeld said restoring confidence among the players was not an easy matter but everyone involved was trying a range of things to restore the players' belief.
"That confidence word is a big one isn't it, and they don't sell it at the supermarket," Neeld said. "You can't find it at Coles, go down and find a jar of it."
He said the place was searching for the key to transform its solid improvement on the track into games.
"The worst thing a football club can do is sit on [their] hands and do nothing so we're having a go," Neeld said.
While many have wondered about the club's direction in the wake of the losses and just four wins since Neeld took over, the coach was able to express his confidence in the plan although he conceded it was obvious they weren't where they expected to be at this stage.
"I don't think anyone, even the most optimistic people thought we'd able to turn the club around in one year. [A] rebuild takes a lot longer than a year," Neeld said.
"You can't buy experience. These kids are learning as we go and we're just chipping away trying to move the club forward. Rebuilds can't be measured from game to game, it happens over a significant period of time."
He said his demeanour post-game on Saturday night reflected the emotions he felt when he saw how devastated the players were after the game.
"My first thought was with the players," Neeld said. "These are guys who come around [to] my home and sit at my dinner table and talk about life and their family and their plans for the future and to see them in that state, that's hard."
Criticism has been leveled at the Demons from all quarters, starting with the decision to substitute Jack Watts to letting Channel Seven show Neeld's pre-game speech but the coach said most decisions are open for debate after two big losses.
"It is what it is. When you're zip and two no matter what you do someone will find a way to criticise it. You do nothing, that is the wrong thing; you do something, that is the wrong thing. You go to Sorrento. You should have gone to Torquay," Neeld said.
There were no big promises from Neeld about what would happen when the Demons face the Eagles at the MCG on Saturday afternoon, the coach saying his team would be looking to extend the effort it showed for the first 20 minutes against Essendon for much longer.
Neeld also said Watts was disappointed to be dropped but the 22-year-old understood the reasons why he was being sent back to the VFL.
