LET'S be clear - this was a stay of execution.

However, the Melbourne board's Monday decision to retain Mark Neeld offers the beleaguered coach a glimmer of hope.

The reprieve buys him time for the team to show enough improvement to convince onlookers that real progress is being made.

Decision time: Neeld stays on as coach

It is understood Melbourne's interim CEO Peter Jackson acknowledged the difficult environment in which the coach has been operating during his tenure.

While all areas of the football department will be examined in detail, Jackson considered it premature to determine the problems as being due to the performance of the senior coach.

Jackson is undergoing a rigorous assessment of football department staff but it is believed he is yet to speak to many of them one-on-one. He has told club staff he will interview each person individually.

A club statement after the meeting told members to expect that in the "coming weeks and months we will seek to change the structure of the Football Department as well as a number of other aspects of our business."

Jackson has already tightened the executive team to just three, with chief operating officer Matthew Green, marketing and communications manager Jennifer Watt and football manager Josh Mahoney reporting to the CEO.

Jackson revealed soon after his appointment that former CEO Cameron Schwab had four people in the football department alone reporting directly to him.

He has made it clear to staff from the outset that changes will be made.

As it happened: Relive a dramatic day for the embattled Demons

The football department has also been left in no doubt since Jackson's arrival that while wins and losses are not the be all and end all, signs of poor on-field effort will not be tolerated.

Despite the 95-point loss to Hawthorn on Sunday there were clear signs of effort, with the team winning the third quarter against the premiership favourites.

Several recruits and young players played reasonably well and desire indicators (an internal measure of effort) were high.  

The Melbourne board is believed to have agreed on Monday that the football department has delivered on the directives the board set when Neeld was appointed to make decisions in club's medium and long-term interest.

That included recruiting young players and developing a high-performance culture.

Many in the football department have expressed the view previously that the effect of their decisions should be judged at the end of the second year of that task.

They can point to several mitigating factors affecting current performance:

•  Injuries to key players Mitch Clark, Chris Dawes, Jack Grimes and Tom McDonald
•  Inexperience in terms of games played compared to the opposition
•  A depleted midfield with more numbers needed
•  A long-term approach to playing talented youngsters (it could point to Sunday's opponent Hawthorn having two players – Taylor Duryea and Sam Grimley – who only made their debut this year after being at the club for four years).

While media speculation continues to swirl around the future of key people in the football department, the board's decision shows it is prepared to hold the line in order to complete the task.   

It is believed to understand that the root of many of the current difficulties can be traced further than Neeld.

The club's drafting record was woeful before Neeld arrived and many claim it did not have a high-performance culture.

Former player Cale Morton only expressed last week his surprise at how hard players at his new club, the West Coast Eagles, worked on the training track compared to his early years at the Demons.

Jackson will now continue to determine what is required to address the issues affecting on-field performance.

In May after just one week in the role, Jackson expressed to AFL.com.au his initial view of Neeld and the football department.

"[Neeld's] experienced in footy and he is not experienced in head coaching. When you look at his coaching panel, most of them are relatively inexperienced," Jackson said.

Neeld still has a future at the Demons after the decision to retain him as senior coach. Picture: AFL Media