Former Melbourne coach Dean Bailey believes Collingwood assistant Mark Neeld has the right package of qualities to take the Demons to the next level in 2012.
Melbourne football director Garry Lyon has confirmed the Demons will announce their new coach on Saturday morning, with several reports indicating Neeld is over the line.
Speaking on Friday evening, Bailey distinguished himself once again, saying he believed Neeld was a superb candidate to take over from him as the next full-time coach of Melbourne.
"He's (Neeld) got a great pedigree and he's got a real strong length in coaching which is fantastic."
"If he is announced tomorrow then it's going to be a great opportunity for him to bring some of his experiences from Collingwood to Melbourne and I hope he's really successful."
"The easy thing is for me to sit there and say, 'look, I hope he's not as successful and I hope things struggle'."
"But I honestly hope that he has a great career there and I would love to see him coach a team, coach Melbourne to play finals next year."
Bailey acknowledged it would hurt seeing Melbourne win a premiership one day without him, but he said he certainly hopes Neeld achieves this.
"Hopefully it is Mark Neeld, everyone's talking about Mark being the person," Bailey said.
"Hopefully he'll have great success 'cause Melbourne needs success, it's been a long time, (19)64's a long time."
"Will I sit here one day and see Melbourne win a premiership, I hope so, I really do, because the players are the ones that actually put the show on."
"Will I take it (the opportunity to coach Melbourne) to my grave, yes I will."
"I mean, it may well an opportunity that I'll never ever get again."
"Would I change things if I had my time again, you do 'cause when you sit back and you start to reflect it does become, you start to look at things that you could have done, should have done."
"But at the end of the day you did them for the right reasons, (so) you sit back and you say, 'well, good luck to the next person'."