Speaking post-match after his side’s 42-point loss to Collingwood at the MCG on Monday, Neeld said Howe has the ability and work ethic to match it with the best in the middle.
“Jeremy hasn’t played a lot of footy. He’s played mid-20 games and [he has] a lot of talent,” he said.
“It’s pretty hard to say he’s this or that. He’s got the capabilities to go everywhere.
“Right now, I reckon he’s a midfielder and I reckon he’s got the ability to develop into a genuine AFL mid. Ask me the same question in three years and we’ll see how we go.”
Reflecting on the loss, Neeld said his team’s first quarter, when it conceded 0.4 to 6.3, was a poor indication of its recent form.
“That first quarter wasn’t what we saw last week, and it wasn’t what we dished up last week. That was really disappointing and our challenge is to eradicate as many of those as we can,” he said.
“We’ve had the first half of the year - we’ve had a couple of disappointing efforts against a couple of teams that have been playing really well.
“We’re battling our backsides off … in round two we played the Eagles in Perth and then Sydney in Sydney and we coughed up some non-competitive efforts and it was the same in the first quarter.”
Neeld said he would keep drilling the basics into his players, before the team could go to the next level.
“When we get our competitive statistics even, then really tactical stuff can come into it,” he said.
