AN UPBEAT Mark Neeld is confident his job as Melbourne coach is not in jeopardy despite intense speculation he will be sacked when the club's board meets on Monday afternoon.

Speaking after the Demons' 95-point thrashing by Hawthorn on Sunday, Neeld remained adamant his development program was on the right track.

The embattled second-year coach said he had received no indication from the club's leaders that Monday's monthly meeting would be any different to the 17 others he has attended.

Despite the external pressure brought on by mounting heavy losses, Neeld said nothing within the club had changed.

He said the club was always aware of his long-term plans for regeneration, pointing to the recruitment of 17-year-old mini-draft selection Jesse Hogan, who will not be eligible to play AFL until next season, as evidence.

"The criteria and the plan when we got together as a group, we haven't budged on that," Neeld said.

"Our first priority was training standards and AFL lifestyle, the second one was player leadership, and the third one was recruiting.

"Within the recruiting, in brackets, 'go young'.

"If the criteria was to have won 12 games by now, I don't reckon we would have traded Jesse Hogan for pick three, and we wouldn't have taken a kid (Jimmy Toumpas) that has had two hip operations at pick four."

Neeld said he expected his presentation at Monday's board meeting to follow its regular course.

"This is the 18th board meeting that I will be attending; I go to one every month," he said.

"I'm there for about 30 minutes, and have a general chat about things.

"All the presentations I give are about the focus areas we're working on; they're really keen to know of the 14 new players that we brought into the club last November, how they're tracking, those sorts of things."

Regardless of Sunday's huge losing margin, Neeld said there were significant positives.

He said the team's four key focuses had been 'one-percenters', winning the football, tackling, and competing at clearances.

He pointed out that his players had reached their one-percenters target, had amassed 300 total disposals for the first time this season, had won tackles (76-51), and lost clearances by only "a handful" (37-43).

Neeld went on to say he felt there was hope for his group, despite the dire forecasts.

"We had a talented group of young players walk through the door last November," he said.

"They brought with them a terrific attitude to want to be good, and they're being led by a group of young players really well.

"So I guess talent plus good work ethic and good leadership equals hope, and equals a way out."

Key forward Chris Dawes, who turned in a strong performance with 21 disposals and 12 marks, put the blame for the club's predicament on the players.

"One of the biggest reasons why the pressure has been building externally is the efforts of the players – they haven't been up to standard," Dawes said.

"It's the nature of footy that the media and supporters start asking questions of the head coach, but anybody with a football brain and anybody within the club can see that it's a mess that the players have gotten us into.

"We're starting to take responsibility for that now. Tonight was one of the first steps."