Focus on Footy's Martin Hiscock, a surgeon, told SEN he had asked the board to replace four sitting members with people from his rebel group, a suggestion they rejected.

He insisted the coup attempt had the support of many club members, saying they had enough signatures to trigger an extraordinary general meeting to overthrow the board.

But Hiscock conceded he did not have enough candidates to form a viable alternative.

"We had a lot of top-end-of-town people behind us, but they don't want to go on a coup ticket, that's the problem you have," he said.

Hiscock said he did not think the Tigers would play finals next year and warned that if the team did not improve, there were other people willing to have another go at challenging the board.

"It wasn't the fact that we didn't make the finals, it was the way we played and when you look at the way we played you know there's something inherently wrong, very wrong inside the club," he said.

Although clearly unhappy with the performance of senior coach Damien Hardwick, who has the backing of the board, Focus on Footy did say it wanted to fire him before next year.

Hiscock said sacking Hardwick would cost the club about $2 million, which was all it had in the bank.

"We thought long and hard about that and we thought no, let's leave him there 'til next year," he said.

"Build a team around him, he's a good person, he has the rapport with the players, and see how we go."