Stephen Howell | April 4, 2008 - CLICK HERE

HIS team has copped back-to-back thrashings in the opening two rounds, so Dean Bailey got some advice from TEAMates yesterday.

That is, from other coaches in TEAMelbourne, the marketing and promotional collective of other sports clubs with Melbourne in their names — the Demons, rugby league's Storm, basketball's Tigers, netball's Vixens and the Melbourne Racing Club.

TEAMelbourne had the group as speakers at its inaugural breakfast at the MCG yesterday and, although new coach Bailey copped some ribbing, he surely found it more enjoyable than the Demons loss to Hawthorn by 104 points in round one and to the Western Bulldogs by 99 points a week later.

The advice came from a collective who claimed never to have been sacked: the Vixens' inaugural coach Julie Hoornweg, the Storm's Craig Bellamy, the Tigers' Alan Westover — who has 10 years to run on his contract — and horse trainer Mark Kavanagh, who is his own boss.

Hoornweg, a coach for 35 years but being paid full-time for the first time this year as netball begins its trans-Tasman league, suggested Bailey stick to his game plan.

Bellamy said to make sure everyone worked hard because "hard workers get lucky".

It was advice that had worked for him, although Bellamy was sure he would be sacked "at some stage".

Kavanagh said to "keep smiling, things can only improve".

Westover, like Bellamy, the reigning champion in his sport, said that an outsider could not know what was going on with the Demons day-by-day, but he considered any talk of a firing squad to be a bit tough after only two games.

The Demons rolled out Bailey for an after-breakfast media conference in the Olympic Room and, in between repetitions about Melbourne having to be competitive all game rather than for small parts of it, he showed he had not lost his sense of humour.

Among coaches who rang to wish him well, he said, was "Phil Jackson of the Chicago Bulls". When quizzed, Bailey owned up to the joke, and said he realised Jackson coached the Los Angeles Lakers, not the Bulls. He would not say who among his peers had called, but their messages were: "I've been where you've been … I've lost games … stick at what you're doing … if you continue to teach, educate, work with your players, stay united, you will turn it around".

Bailey said the Demons were edging forward but not at the speed he would like, and he knew "the further you progress it (your club), the longer you stay in the game".

He said he expected a review of his and the players' performances during the break after round seven. That would be a review of on-field efforts, not any off-field antics, a subject also discussed yesterday.

Hoornweg said netballers weren't angels, but there were no issues.

Bellamy admitted he had "a couple of guys who are probably on the edge at times — they need to be watched closely".

And as to this year's brace of urinating footballers, Kavanagh, as is his style, took the piss: "Horses are trained to urinate in certain places — before a race we take them into a special stall where they urinate," he said.

"I don't know how you do that with footballers."