Melbourne great Garry Lyon stuck to what he knows best on his first day back at the AFL club, imploring players to rediscover their love of the game.

Lyon watched a light training session as he started a short-term consultancy position with the embattled Demons, who this week sacked coach Dean Bailey.

He briefly addressed the players, who face Carlton on Saturday at the MCG in the wake of their 186-point annihilation by Geelong.

"At the end of the day at a footy club, essentially your most important group are your players," Lyon said.

"The first thing is to clear their heads ... to confirm to them that we've got a clean slate here.

"I just said, 'smile boys, you've got a pretty good job, you're doing what you love, let's get out and have some fun'."

Lyon planned to immerse himself in the football department to try to understand the issues that have fractured the club before reporting to the board.

He said he had been "sitting outside", unfamiliar with club politics, rather than the puppet-master behind the scenes he'd been made out to be.

The former club captain said while he planned to talk to young gun Tom Scully, his priority was to assist with the appointment of a football director to ease the load on cancer-stricken club president Jim Stynes.

Stynes took over the position early in the season after the departure of Andrew Leoncelli.

"It is important to have someone who is a conduit between the footy club and the board," Lyon said.

"It comes down to all sorts of issues, accountability, being able to go to someone.

"From the start of next footy season, the game plan is to have a football director who's hopefully been in transition for a few months."

Lyon conceded he "could be naive" to think that he could solve all the club's problems inside the three-four month timeframe that he's set himself.

But he ruled out taking on the position himself long-term, citing a clash with his media commitments.

As host of Channel Nine's The Footy Show and radio commentator with Triple M, Lyon said he couldn't maintain both professions at once.

"I've been very, very clear that I can't do this job as a director of football and work in the roles that I do.

"I've just spent four days doing everything contrary to what I want to do in my job that I'm paid to do really well.

"I'm hosing down, on the one side, a footy show that I'd normally be sooling onto a story and, on the other side, I'm saying let's lock down and shut up."

Lyon plans to call the Melbourne-Carlton AFL game on radio on Saturday but will be free to watch their next four matches.

He expected the Demons to play for the entire game against the high-flying Blues.

"(Interim coach) Todd Viney will ensure that they will compete from the start of the game until the end," he said.

"Melbourne supporters want to see them trying ... that's all you can ask."

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