Melbourne are on the verge of appointing highly-respected Collingwood assistant Mark Neeld as their new AFL senior coach.

Demons officials are tight-lipped on media reports that Neeld has the job.

But interim Melbourne football director Garry Lyon, at the MCG for Friday night's semi-final, confirmed the Demons are close to making their announcement.

"We are in the final throes of finalising the appointment, we would expect to announce something tomorrow," Lyon said.

This would be Neeld's first senior AFL coaching appointment.

Neeld, West Coast assistant Scott Burns and Geelong deputy Brenton Sanderson have been in the mix for the vacant senior roles at the Demons, Adelaide and the Western Bulldogs.

The senior coaching market took a dramatic twist on Thursday night when Fremantle sacked Mark Harvey and Ross Lyon dramatically quit St Kilda to take over the newly-vacant Dockers job.

Neeld, 40, played 74 senior games for Geelong and Richmond from 1990-96.

He has been an assistant at the Magpies for the last four years and Mick Malthouse has always had a high regard for him.

Neeld also coached Bellarine League club Ocean Grove to four-straight premierships from 2000-03 and was in charge of TAC Cup team the Western Jets for three years before joining the Magpies.

Melbourne sacked Dean Bailey as their senior coach near the end of this season and assistant Todd Viney took over as the interim coach.

There has been speculation that the Demons will also appoint an assistant coach with senior experience, similar to Mark Thompson's overseeing role at Essendon, to help Neeld.

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