AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou has left the door ajar for the AFL Commission to use its discretion to award the Demons a priority pick should they continue to sink, but McGuire says that is not the way to go. ''One of the things that I am worried about, everyone goes: 'The priority pick, give them a priority pick' [but] we have seen the priority pick doesn't do anything,'' McGuire said. ''It wouldn't matter if you stuck the best kid in Australia into Melbourne at the moment, all you would probably do is get him belted up. He would be rushed in too early, as we have seen possibly with Jack Watts in the first place.'' The Bulldogs had an exhilarating win over St Kilda at the weekend but football director Chris Grant has admitted it could be up to five seasons before his club is again among the elite. In a candid assessment of the Bulldogs and Demons, which share three wins this season and finished near the foot of the ladder last season, McGuire said: ''I think at the moment you have two sides that have been cut adrift too far and because they have stuffed it up along the way, let's just not completely absolve them of their sins. But because of this perfect storm, these two clubs are now in big trouble unless they get a bit of help along the way.''

McGuire said the Bulldogs and Melbourne would be better off being handed an extra $2 million apiece to spend on players. ''The thing that you have to do to have equality in football is have 100 per cent of the salary cap paid, because at the moment you still have clubs that don't pay 100 per cent of the salary cap,'' he said on Triple M. ''You have other clubs like Sydney who are paying about 110, 115 per cent with all their advantages, even back-ending, front-ending contracts, all that type of stuff. ''Also with these new sides, the GWS and Gold Coast, because they have front-ended a lot of their contracts, they are really going to come in at an advantage and that's where the Bulldogs and Melbourne are absolutely getting screwed to the wall at the moment. ''I was thinking possibly what we need to do is look at making sure the AFL allow Melbourne and the Bulldogs to pay not only 100 per cent of the salary cap but maybe give them 110 per cent to keep the players they have got by giving them extra money and to get into the free-agency market.

''If they get an extra $2 million, for example, they could go and get four blokes at $500,000. You would go from being a cellar-dweller to being a pretty good side pretty quickly.'' However, that does not guarantee improvement. The Demons' off-season recruits David Rodan, Shannon Byrnes, Cameron Pedersen and Tom Gillies have had little impact, while former Magpie Chris Dawes, given a four-year deal worth more than $2 million, has yet to build match fitness. The Bulldogs were among the bottom three clubs in total player payment spending last season. And it is understood Melbourne paid nearly 100 per cent of the TPP as it front-loaded contracts. A 90-point loss to Fremantle on Sunday has intensified scrutiny of the Demons. Club great Gerard Healy says Neeld must go if there isn't improvement, with board support ''getting thinner and thinner''.