ON THE BACK of his inaugural win as senior coach, Mark Neeld says he never doubted his ability, despite starting his tenure with nine losses.

Speaking after Melbourne’s thrilling six-point win over Essendon at the MCG on Saturday night, Neeld said his self-belief never wavered, even though it took until round 10 to record the victory.  

“No, [there was] no doubt, but you review what you do every week,” he said.

“You have a look at it. Are there things that we need to be doing differently? How can we improve there?

“Footy coaches are into the boring stuff that you guys (the media) don’t like - like processes and structures and training plans and individual learning plans and GPS stats and blood results on recovery.

“That’s what our week looks like, so you just look at all of that stuff and how we can get better. That’s the boring stuff that you guys (the media) don’t want to write about, but actually we do.”

Neeld said the most pleasing aspect of the win was that it was a “four quarter effort from the players”.

“Us and Essendon have a good recent past and some good competitive games and we stuck at it and stayed in the contest all night,” he said.

“There are some good signs. Half-way through the third quarter, we were about minus 20 in contested possessions and Essendon had a little bit of a run on.

“The boys, to their credit, managed to fight back and almost square the ledger by the end of the game, and in those conditions - it was a really good effort.”

In terms of what the win will do for the team, Neeld said only “time will tell”.

“The boys have been great … they’ve been amazing,” he said.

“They’re really keen to improve in a whole heap of areas and they’ve been working their backsides off - that hasn’t changed.

“I’ve seen enough to know that that will continue.”