New Melbourne coach Mark Neeld plans to turn the inconsistent Demons into an AFL club rivals hate to play.

The 40-year-old's three-year deal was confirmed on Saturday, with Neeld immediately cutting ties with Collingwood, after spending four seasons with the Magpies as an assistant.

Neeld, who rated Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse and former Geelong, Adelaide and St Kilda coach Malcolm Blight as his two biggest footballing influences, said he had a simple philosophy.

"I simply want to coach the team that's the hardest to play against in the AFL," Neeld told reporters on Saturday.

Asked if that meant a defensive emphasis, he said: "That means all over the ground we're going to be the hardest to play against, that's what our aim is, as simple as that."

He said it was the same approach he had taken when coaching Bellarine League club Ocean Grove to four straight premierships, from 2000-03.

Neeld also coached TAC Cup team the Western Jets for three years before joining the Magpies, where he spent two years as the defensive coach and the past two in charge of the midfield.

Neeld said he had told Malthouse earlier this week that if he won the job with the Demons he wanted to stay on and help the Magpies through the rest of their finals campaign.

But Malthouse instantly dismissed the idea.

"I said to him, 'I'll be appointed a senior coach, I'll put that on the backburner for a couple of weeks and do a bit of work after hours and coach the Collingwood midfield,'" Neeld said.

"He said to me, 'That's exactly what I thought you'd say, but I've got something for you, the minute you're a senior coach of an AFL club that's exactly what you are.'

"I'm the senior coach of the Melbourne Football Club, it's not practical to be coaching the Collingwood midfield."

Neeld said he will be at Melbourne's best and fairest awards on Friday night, not watching the Magpies play Hawthorn in a preliminary final.

Neeld played 74 senior games from 1990-96, including 48 for Geelong, under Blight's coaching, and 26 for Richmond.

Neeld replaces Dean Bailey, who was sacked as Demons' senior coach near the end of this season, after almost four years in the job, with assistant Todd Viney having coached out the last five games this year on an interim basis.

Demons chief executive Cameron Schwab refused to confirm or deny speculation the Demons were close to appointing ex-Adelaide coach Neil Craig as a senior assistant for Neeld.

"Our attitude to that is the same as what it was to this - we'll make announcements when we're ready to make announcements," Schwab said.

"We understand there's going to be a lot of conjecture, what we've said to Mark is we'll give him the best opportunity to get the best people we can."

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