NEW MELBOURNE coach Mark Neeld says he will demand to be surrounded by a successful group of coaches, and a strong football department.

Neeld will implore the club to make sure he has a solid coaching group around him, as he starts the first of at least three years with the Demons.

“As to the individual make up of that … we’ll sit down as a group and make sure the appropriate people are appointed and that they’re in their correct role,” he said.

“Successful organisations and strong clubs - they win flags - not individual people. You need a lot of them working in the same direction.

“The commitment that they (the Melbourne board) have given me is that the coaching group will be a very strong group surrounded by successful people, because they exhibit successful behaviours.”

Neeld said he would work closely with Melbourne’s list and recruiting department in terms of the make-up of the squad. 

“Those decisions are made by football departments and football clubs and at times, I’ll have an opinion and that will be very strong, but it won’t be the only opinion,” he said.  

“We’ll work together as a group to achieve the things that we want to as a playing list and from a coaching structure and a game style.”

Neeld said his relationship with triple premiership coach Mick Malthouse would remain strong, despite the duo now being at rival clubs.

But as for any thought of the 2010 Collingwood premiership coach joining Neeld at Melbourne, he said it won’t happen.

“No, Mick will be the director of coaching at Collingwood next year and we’ll both be taking our hats off from our individual clubs to discuss how things are going in terms of real footy issues and how our personal life is travelling,” he said.

“That relationship will continue to be strong, as it will be with a number of people at Collingwood. But I’m about to build some very strong relationships with the people here [at Melbourne].”

Meanwhile, chief executive Cameron Schwab did not speculate on the possibility of former Adelaide coach Neil Craig joining Melbourne.

“We’ll make announcements when we’re ready to make announcements,” he said.

“We understand there is going to be a lot of conjecture.”

Schwab said Neeld will have a key role in deciding the football department personnel.

“The coach should have a very, very big say in the people he wants working for him, but it’s about the right mix of people,” he said.

“The one thing you want to have is the balance … you don’t want all of your learning going out the door and a whole new group coming in.”