Key Demons meet on Bailey - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Key Demons meet on Bailey

By Roger Vaughan and Sam Lienert 31/07/2011 08:33:47 PM Comments (0)

Melbourne coach Dean Bailey was at the mercy of club powerbrokers on Sunday night as the AFL club reeled from the second-worst loss in league history.

There was also mounting speculation about the futures of Demons chief executive Cameron Schwab and football operations manager Chris Connolly.

Key Melbourne figures had met throughout Sunday afternoon and there was still no official comment by Sunday evening.

On Saturday, Geelong kicked the fourth-highest score in VFL/AFL history as they savaged Melbourne by 186 points, which was the second-highest margin.

Bailey is out of contract at the end of the season and the disaster predictably fuelled speculation that he will not survive.

The prevailing mood on Sunday was only whether Melbourne would sack Bailey now or let him continue until the end of the year.

"The historical precedent would say that when a coach is under pressure, his job is under scrutiny, and all of a sudden there's this gigantic loss, you-know-what tends to hit the fan," AFL coaching great Leigh Matthews told Channel Seven's Game Day.

"It just becomes a tipping point.

"So it would be hard to think that Dean could survive this into next year."

Fellow commentator Tim Watson said the Cats were so dominant, they reminded him of basketball's Harlem Globetrotters exhibition team.

"I've never seen a side be so uncompetitive as Melbourne were yesterday," he said.

"I've never, ever seen a game like that."

Last weekend, St Kilda thrashed Adelaide by 103 points to kill off Neil Craig as Crows senior coach.

On Monday, Craig made a dignified exit from the job.

Former Melbourne forward David Schwarz said on Sunday that the Demons should turn to an experienced coach to replace Bailey.

But Collingwood president Eddie McGuire warned Melbourne or any other club against approaching current Magpies coach Mick Malthouse, who will hand over the role later this year to Nathan Buckley.

Malthouse is set to stay on at Collingwood in a director of coaching role.

"As I drove in today, I was listening on the radio about how clubs were going to go after Mick Malthouse and Melbourne this and Melbourne that and all the rest of it," McGuire said at an MCG function before the Essendon game.

"Let me just say it once - Mick Malthouse is contracted to the Collingwood Football Club and we're an $85 million business these days, we're not mucking around.

"In the next three months as we try to win another premiership, we will take the birch to anybody who gets in our way.

"If anybody starts coming up and pulling the coat of a contracted member of the Collingwood Football Club, they will be hit with everything from legal to moral issues right across the board."

Melbourne players Jared Rivers and Jack Trengove both said on Sunday that the blame for Saturday's debacle should fall on players, not the coach.

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