MARK Riley awoke yesterday, at about 5am, with the hope of a late rise ruined by the intrusion of his own thoughts. Scenarios, he later called them; what-ifs and maybes and fears coming to life in his mind like invaders from within.

He finished his day a little more at ease, with a glass of wine in his hand and time spent before the television watching the tape of his first match as a senior AFL coach as it was actually played, rather than as he had feared it could in those fitful pre-dawn hours.

He was both a relaxed and relieved figure after it was all over. The match, an encounter with lowly Carlton at the MCG, was won. More importantly, it eased a little of the grief caused by the departure of Riley's predecessor and close friend, Neale Daniher, a week earlier.

As Riley's career as an AFL coach started, Melbourne started over.

"I'm just really pleased for the boys and pleased for the footy club. It's been a tumultuous year, to say the least, and it was fantastic to see how the whole club operated during a very difficult week," Riley said post-match.

"So I was very pleased for everyone involved. It's been a tough year and everyone needs the emotional nourishment that winning brings."

The complexities of acknowledging Daniher's contribution over nearly a decade but addressing the future were, at times, confusing. Daniher's right-hand man, Melbourne football manager Chris Fagan, even described various moments throughout the first week of Riley's tenure as weird.

"It was a bit strange a times. I did actually call him Neale in one of those distracted moments," said Fagan, who added that the new coach wisely worked with an old theme of Daniher's.

"The thing about Neale is that his legacy to our team, our club, is his resilience. He's always been a resilient bloke and what resilient people do is go, 'all right, that's happened but what's next?'. And that's what we talked about a fair bit this week.

"We said to our players that you've spent a bit of time with Neale over the weekend and you know he's working out what he wants to do next, you need to do that, too."

Riley decided that it was best, for the players at least, to simplify the preparation for the Carlton match.

He entrusted some potentially critical match-ups to younger players, such as giving James Frawley the task of containing Jarrad Waite, but didn't even address the Blues until mid-week.

"We just talked about the transition on Monday, about what 'Bomber' expected, and getting on with it," was how veteran Nathan Brown described the start of his post-Daniher career.

"I mean after the weekend, where we had the Friday night game and the whole weekend before we had to be back at the club, we got back on Monday knowing Bomber was going to be the coach.

"We knew we had some injuries and were going to have a young side. We just focused on getting our rehab right and he said we'd start concentrating on Carlton on Wednesday and that was about it. He said it (Monday) would be the last day we talk about Neale. We had to get on with it.

"It was a very simple (week). Even the team meetings were pretty basic and uncomplicated. A bit different to Neale, where there was a bit more going on. But that's about all he could do."

Riley, a man with a long coaching record, found the experience of sitting in Daniher's seat much as he expected it would be. He couldn't, he conceded, stay as calm as he had hoped he might, but that was OK.

"I really enjoyed the experience. I've coached a lot of games of footy and there's not a lot of difference, no matter where you've coached, in the heat of battle. You'd like to think you'd stay calm for 120 minutes of the time but that just doesn't happen."

And sitting in for Daniher can't mean that he tries to be Daniher. Riley didn't go out on to the ground as his players celebrated victory for just the third time this season. It was their moment, he said, not his.

But, in a sense, yesterday was his moment. Or at least the start of his time.