MELBOURNE has "lost everything" since it sacked former coach Neale Daniher.
That is the view of outgoing Swans chairman Richard Colless.
Daniher took the club to six finals campaigns from 1998-2007, including the 2000 Grand Final.
Colless said: "I found Melbourne under (former coach) Neale Daniher to be a very competitive unit. We were roughly at the same standard and they were always very tight games.
"But they just seem to have lost everything and have had so many top-10 picks.
"It's just extraordinary the way they have collapsed. It almost beggars belief, to be perfectly honest."
But don't expect Swans premiership coach Paul Roos to be Melbourne's saviour.
Colless said Roos was unlikely to coach an AFL club again.
Roos has said he has no desire to take the reins at Melbourne or West Coast and publicly stated that a generous pay check wouldn't be enough to get him back in the coach's box.
Colless told News Limited he took Roos at his word, but if he changed his mind it would be with his blessing.
"Well, he says he won't. I'd be surprised. But if he did, I would wish him all the best.
"This is a man who took us to our first premiership in 72 years and, as far as I'm concerned, everything he does is fine by me."
He said Melbourne needed a "hard-nosed plan" if it was to survive its current crisis.
"Money is important. The Swans know that as well as anyone. Without some additional support from the AFL in the 1990s, we just couldn't survive," he said.
"But just giving clubs money doesn't solve the problem. I don't think that does the club any favours.
"There has to be a really hard-nosed plan of how the club is going to resurrect itself over a five-year period.
"You've got to look at the better clubs, snap out of denial ... and almost start again."
Colless said he would announce his successor in the Harbour City within the coming weeks.
Harry Thring is a reporter for AFL Media. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_Harry.
