EMBATTLED Melbourne coach Mark Neeld says he is coping "OK" despite constant speculation over his future at the club.
The Demons have just one win from seven games, with their horrific start to the season exacerbated by a dismal 60-point loss to Gold Coast at the MCG on Sunday.
Despite the pressure he is under, Neeld said he was remaining focused on the task at hand, starting with Richmond on Sunday.
"I'm OK, it’s not about me," Neeld told melbournefc.com.au.
"In my world, it’s about the 46 players that we have, and in particular the 22 who played on the weekend.
"We are disappointed with the scoreboard, but particularly disappointed with the effort in some parts of the game."
The Demons coach said he paid little attention to the scrutiny he was facing.
"I don’t get too carried away with that external noise. My focus is that we were non-competitive in the combative part of the game," he said.
"We felt, over the previous three weeks, that we’d seen a lot of improvement in that area, albeit the scoreline was similar against the Blues (in round six), [but] we were not in it on the weekend.
"We had over 100 ineffective tackles – that’s 100 times the boys made the effort to go and tackle and we were brushed aside – that was particularly disappointing. So that’s where our efforts are being directed."
Neeld's coaching tenure is set to be tested over the next four weeks, as Melbourne plays top eight teams Richmond, Fremantle, Hawthorn and Collingwood.
The Demons coach stressed the "effort" of his players had not been at AFL standard all year.
"All clubs are at different stages, but there’s not too many clubs who continually have to revisit, with the player group, 'let's coach effort'. That’s not normal in the AFL, so we’re doing our best to eradicate that," he said.
Neeld said the physical side of the game would be an intense focus for his team against Richmond this Sunday, and, for the upcoming weeks.
"After the weekend, there are a lot of areas we need to improve. The first one is that combative element of footy," he said.
"Before we start worrying about those other fancy things that you should be able to worry about at times, as you go along the development continuum, we’ve got to get back to that and get that right."
