WHEN Melbourne coach Mark Neeld first told Melbourne's players on Monday of the false accusations in a website article from former Saints coach and media commentator Grant Thomas they thought he was joking.

Melbourne's co-captain Jack Grimes told a press conference on Tuesday it did not take long for the group to realise how upset Neeld was by the suggestion that he had treated the club's indigenous players differently from their non-indigenous teammates.

The 22-year-old said he felt Neeld had every right to take whatever action he thought appropriate to ensure the inaccurate claims were publicly corrected.

"We could tell it affected him a fair bit," Grimes said.

"It seemed he was pretty hurt by (the false allegation) and pretty taken aback by it, because it is definitely not the truth and us players know it's definitely not the truth."

The offending part of the article has since been removed from the website and Thomas has apologised to Neeld.