COACH Mark Neeld says his team’s No.1 aim against Richmond at the MCG on Sunday is to be as competitive for as long as it can.

On the back of a disappointing 10-goal loss to the Gold Coast Suns last round, Neeld said it was imperative his inexperienced side took it up to the much-improved Tigers.

“That’s where we’re at,” he said.

“[We’re going to see] these players play another game of AFL footy, which is exactly the situation that we’re in. We’re rapt with the young boys that will be getting out there.

“That’s great for the footy club – some clubs have the opportunity to do it with two or three [players] and we’re doing it with 13 [players].”
Neeld said the bigger picture was his key focus for the club at the moment.

“We’ve got an unbelievably inexperienced list, so it’s not about week to week. If you look at our past month, three of those games – the effort and all of those combative stats have been particularly good,” Neeld said.

“The world knows that when you’re dealing with inexperienced groups – you know that you’re going to have weeks where it’s not so good.

“We were not so pleased at all with the combative element of the game and the way that we deal with that is to show the boys some clips … and then we get out there and train it.”

Neeld said his team will have 13 players with fewer than 50 matches to their name against Richmond. He pointed to inexperienced types Jimmy Toumpas, Dean Terlich, Matt Jones, Michael Evans and Max Gawn as players who were critical to the club’s future. But he said they too would need time to develop.

“How many players under 50 games play to their full potential?” he said.

“They’re out there developing every week.

“That’s the way it is.”

Neeld said there was no short term fix for the Demons and it would take three to five years to turn their fortunes around.

“It’s a long term fix and we’re doing exactly what everyone said the football club needed to do two or three years ago – it’s happening now,” he said.

“It’s great for our footy club that we’ve got all these young guys who are going to be around for ages, and at the moment we all have to play them together, because we’ve got some injuries.”

“I haven’t got half a dozen 200-game players, I can play.”

Neeld said he was given a clear blueprint when he joined the club and he believed it was track.

“To restart a football club from scratch, from a footy department, a player list and then from a holistic club point of view isn’t something that happens in six to 12 months – that’s a three to five year thing and that’s what’s happening.

“We had a revamp of the list, which only took place last November, which was 14 new players and the majority were extremely young.

“We couldn’t bring in another 14 more 18 year olds … so from that point of view, the football club started again and that’s the path we’re going down.”