NEW Melbourne coach Mark Neeld says he'll aim to make his young Demons team the hardest to play against in the AFL.

The former Collingwood assistant coach signed a three-year contract with Melbourne on Friday night, and was officially unveiled at the MCG on Saturday.

Neeld will take over a team whose performances swung wildly from outstanding to insipid in 2011, and will seek to install the same philosophy that helped him lead Bellarine league club Ocean Grove to four straight premierships from 2000 to 2003.

"I simply want to coach the team that is the hardest to play against in the AFL," Neeld said.

"That means that all over the ground, we are going to be the hardest team to play against, that's what our aim is, it's as simple as that.

"I know the way that the boys are going to play, and we're going to educate them in that way.

"That's going to be our number one challenge, and we're going to stick to that."

Neeld has been released from his duties at Collingwood, and will be at Melbourne's best and fairest count next Friday night while the Magpies do battle with Hawthorn in a preliminary final on the MCG.

He said a chat with Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse, after it became apparent early last week that he was in line to win the Melbourne role, made his path clear.

"I had a cup of coffee with Mick [on Monday] and he asked me, 'what do you think you're going to do if, at the end of the week, you're a senior coach?'" Neeld said.

"I said to him, 'I'll be appointed as senior coach, put that on the backburner for a couple of weeks and do a little bit of work after hours, and coach the Collingwood midfield.'

"And he said to me, 'That's exactly what I'd thought you'd say, but I've got something for you: the minute you're a senior coach of an AFL club, that's exactly what you are.'

"As the senior coach of the Melbourne Football Club, it's not practical to be coaching the Collingwood midfield. That's open and honest.

"I started my role here at six o'clock last night, and I knew within two minutes that that's what I was going to do 100 per cent of the time."

Neeld and Demons CEO Cameron Schwab didn't divulge who they would target as assistants in their new coaching team.

But Neeld said he had received a commitment that the club would hire people with a track record of success.

"I demand to be surrounded by a solid group of coaches who are successful in their own right," he said.

"As to the individual make-up of that, we'll sit down as a group and make sure that the appropriate people are appointed and that they're in the correct roles."

Schwab said Todd Viney, who took over as interim coach when Dean Bailey was sacked following the 186-point belting by Geelong in round 19, would continue in "at least" his previous position as general manager of player development.

"Todd Viney will continue to play a very, very important role in our club," Schwab said.

"The work that he (Viney) has done in the last part of the year to pick up what was obviously a challenging circumstance and to make his own mark…he's added another chapter to what is a very imposing book of achievements at the Melbourne Football Club."

Neeld said his coaching style would take influences from the contrasting approaches of Malthouse and Malcolm Blight, who he played under at Geelong from 1990 to 1993.

After a lengthy apprenticeship that started with Old Geelong in the VAFA in 1997, followed by stints at Ocean Grove, the Western Jets and finally the Magpies for the past four seasons, Neeld said he'd achieved his goal.

"Day one under Mick, he made it clear that he wanted to be surrounded by an assistant coaching panel that each, in their own right, aimed to be a senior coach," he said.

"From that day, I said, 'right, that's where I want to go. That's where I want to get.'

"And I'm here."