Melbourne football manager Josh Mahoney said the club was constantly looking at ways to improve and after tinkering with the program during the first 12 rounds they have settled on a structure going forward that they think will help the Demons rebound. "The attitude of all the staff and the coaches is that we just want to get better and we want to play whatever role we can to do that. That has given us the confidence to [make the change] at this time of the year," Mahoney said. "We could have let the year play out and made the changes at the end of the year but our attitude is don't waste a minute. If there is an opportunity, let's get it done." The Demons will keep Troy Chaplin as backline coach, Craig Jennings (who is doing the level 4 coaching course) as strategy and education co-ordinator, Ben Mathews as stoppage coach and Justin Plapp as midfield coach for the remainder of 2019 under Goodwin, who is in his third season as senior coach after succeeding Paul Roos in 2017. Loading

McCartney, who joined the club to work in development in 2014 soon after finishing up as Western Bulldogs coach, has a reputation as a hard task master who is revered among players at Geelong who benefited from his teaching on their way to winning three premierships in five years while Rooke has been at the Demons since 2016. Rawlings, who coached Casey into the VFL grand final last year and was named VFL coach of the year, is seen as a rising star in coaching ranks having earned a level four accreditation in recent years. He will return to the coaches box on matchday. The unexpected shift comes after the Demons lost to Collingwood on Queen's Birthday to slump to 16th on the ladder with just three wins in their first 12 games with club president Glen Bartlett saying last week he expected a response in the second half of the year from a team that was expected to make finals after making the 2018 preliminary final. With David Misson's departure as elite performance manager at the end of the season to join family in Canada prompting a restructure of the conditioning department the Demons believed there was no point sitting on their hands in relation to coaching.

That review, which was completed recently, will see the Demons recruit a high performance manager to replace Misson with the potential position overseeing the medical and fitness departments. Dr Zeeshan Arain will become head of medical services and rehab coach Phil Merriman will become head of fitness in a remodelled structure. Simon Goodwin. Credit:AAP Mahoney said the club will benefit from making the structure operational for the final 10 home and away games as they will be able to, with Misson's experience, identify any gaps that may exist as well as the best people for the role. "The high performance manager role is about people management now so we will have a good look at how the structure plays out, the positives and negatives," Mahoney said.

The changes come after Demons made a terrible start to the season winning just one of their first six games after more than a dozen players had post-season surgery and about half the list remained in rehab after Christmas. They did not have key recruits Steven May and Jake Lever available until Queen's Birthday with May playing just one senior game before the clash against Collingwood with May experiencing groin problems and Lever returning from a knee reconstruction. Several assistants are understood to be out of contract at the end of the season with clubs expected to inform coaches by August 1 whether they are being retained or whether they should explore their options.