JACK Watts says former coach Mark Neeld had a mixed impact on him as a player.

Speaking to Fox Footy, Watts said he wasn’t surprised when Neeld was removed as coach mid-season.

“I think Mark came in and did an amazing job with the boys and he came in with his philosophy of going pretty hard with us. I think that works for some people, but not for others,” he said.

“It worked in a certain way for me, with my training standards, but at an emotional level, I found it a bit hard.

“I wouldn’t say I was pleased [with Neeld’s departure], but we probably needed something different.”

The key forward/defender is out of contract at the end of the season, but Watts said he was now more likely to remain at Melbourne in 2014, than he was when Neeld was coach.

“Yeah, I think so,” he said.

“I see myself being at the Melbourne footy club in the future and there are a lot of changes happening at the moment that’s making me feel really optimistic.”

Watts said last round’s career-best four goals against the Western Bulldogs at the MCG was “right up there” as his best AFL match. But he acknowledged he didn’t work hard enough early in his career.

“I don’t think you really know how hard you have to work, so I’d say my first couple of years, [I did] not work hard enough,” Watts said.

“But at the same time, it was pretty hard circumstances and it’s not as though I cut corners … I’m not slack or anything like that.

“I do everything I’m told and I put in, but when you’re playing in a losing team and struggling, that’s the perception as well.”

He added that he didn’t enjoy having the No.1 draft pick spotlight on him.

“At one stage, I got dropped and I played two games down at Casey and I just remember thinking that it was the most enjoyable two games I’ve had since I started at the Dees,” Watts said.

Watts conceded he wasn’t ready to make his AFL debut in the Queen’s Birthday clash against Collingwood in 2009.

“I’d probably say that quite obviously I wasn’t ready at that stage, as an 18-year-old kid,” he said.

Watts also said he was disappointed with the notion that he was too much of a party boy early in his career.

“No, [I don’t think that perception’s fair],” he said.

“That’s one thing that really got me and surprised me. I absolutely love going out with my mates and I enjoy a beer at times, but the perception with me – everything gets blown up.”

But he was optimistic about the future of the club and what the players on the list could do for the Demons long term.