In their hour of crisis, Melbourne have turned to club great Todd Viney to coach the Demons for the remainder of the AFL season.

Replacing the axed Dean Bailey, Viney moves into the top job from his position of general manager of list development at the Demons.

Melbourne chairman Jim Stynes described Viney's position as "interim" and said a committee would be set up to manage the appointment of a new permanent coach.

"Todd is a legend of this club and a very experienced coach," Stynes said.

"Todd is the interim coach for the next five games and then from there we will be be putting in place a group of people and the framework and we will look and find the best possible coach.

"We believe we've got a great group of players and a great future ... we'll be doing everything we can."

Viney has the chance to push his case for a permanent role if he impresses in the remaining games of the season and steers Melbourne into the finals, although the club is likely to look closely at contenders with previous senior coaching experience.

Viney, 45, is revered at the Demons, a 233-game champion between 1987 and 1999 who was captain in his final two seasons.

A tough, uncompromising midfielder during his 11 years, Viney won the club's best and fairest in 1993 and 1998 and was All Australian in 1998.

A top tennis player as a youngster, he briefly retired from football in 1996 to become Mark Philippoussis' fitness coach.

The year after his retirement, Viney started his coaching career as an assistant with Melbourne.

He then had a short stint as the senior coach of country club Moama, before being lured to Hawthorn to assist Alastair Clarkson.

With the Hawks from 2005-08, Viney was seen as a key cog in the team's premiership in his final year at the club.

He then spent two seasons as assistant coach at Adelaide before he broke his contract and returned to the Demons last year.

Viney has made his coaching ambitions clear, and said he felt ready when a number of coaching positions became vacant back in 2007.

"Some guys are putting their hand up and haven't had assistant coaching experience," Viney said then.

"I feel like I have three years experience as an assistant experience and have coached my own team at country level (Moama in the Murray League)."

Viney's son Jay has been pre-listed by the Demons and will be picked up by the club in the 2012 national draft.

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