Mark Riley To Coach Demon's.
FRIDAY night's match against Essendon will be Neale Daniher's last as coach of Melbourne, with Demons assistant Mark Riley taking over as caretaker coach for the rest of the season.
Melbourne chairman Paul Gardner announced on Thursday that Daniher and the club had agreed that the Telstra Dome clash against the Bombers, for whom Daniher played 82 games in an injury-interrupted career, would be his final match as coach.
Gardner said it would be a chance for both Melbourne and Essendon supporters to acknowledge Daniher's 10 years at the helm of the Demons.
Daniher had announced his intention to see out the remainder of the season.
Riley is a former Claremont player. As coach, he led Claremont to the 1994 WAFL Grand Final.
He joined Fremantle on its entry into the AFL and was the club's development coach from 1995-97 and assistant coach from 1998-2000.
He spent 2001 and 2002 back at Claremont as senior coach before joining Melbourne in 2003.
Riley has also been on the coaching staff of the renowed Clontarf Football Academy at Clontarf Aboriginal College in Western Australia.
Gardner said Daniher had shown "passion, skill and expertise, often under trying conditions.
"His laconic manner often belies the intensity he has for the game, the contest and the Melbourne Football Club.
"For me, personally, two of my most enduring memories of his time as coach are from different ends of the spectrum.
"I can vividly remember the excitement, the joy and the unbridled relief when we broke a particularly bad losing drought by beating Geelong by one point at Skilled Stadium. It was our first win there in almost a decade.
"I can also recall at the other end of the spectrum the compassion Neale showed during the tsunami disaster and the tragic loss of Troy Broadbridge."
Gardner said the club was disappointed that Daniher "chose not to go through the process that we believe is necessary at this point in our history.
"The process had been discussed with Neale and he had agreed to undertake it on the exclusive, non-competitive basis before changing his mind yesterday morning.
"We fully accept that decision and we will now apply that process to those who are interested in becoming Melbourne's coach in 2008 and beyond."
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