Analysis The Coach – Simon 'Standard Practice' Goodwin: It's time to go (for real this time)

[A11dAtP0w3R]

What's the vulnerable and clarity rubbish? What does it actually mean?

We need to be vulnerable = Some typically weird Goody way of saying needing to own up to your mistakes/lack of effort and clarity = coaches and players communicating, defining roles/game style.

 

[A11dAtP0w3R]

If you work in an office you hear this sort of shit a lot from managers and HR, leading teams style nonsense, its ****ing cringe.

 

[Capt_Concussion]

If you work in an office you hear this sort of shit a lot from managers and HR, leading teams style nonsense, its ****ing cringe.

It's got its place behind closed doors, but hardly something you trot out to satisfy investors when the company stock is plummeting.

On Pixel 7a using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Lord Nev]

Clubs only get a very very small amount of 'contact hours' these days so there would be a big difference between doing all fitness based training and doing rehab, skills, tactics etc I reckon. Plus, during the season so much more of the time would be spent of recovery, so if you don't get that preseason base in then you're going to struggle to catch up.

The small amount of contact hours is a big issue among the coaching ranks, it's only like 12-15 hours or something like that per week, it's crazy IMO and shows how the AFLPA have taken things too far.

While Cornes conceded that players would do their own extra work away from the club, he simply believes 16 contact hours barring game day is nowhere near enough time for players to really improve themselves on a weekly basis.

“I think that is far too few hours to improve your game for full-time professional athletes that are earning $400,000 on average.”

 

[Daemon]

While Cornes conceded that players would do their own extra work away from the club, he simply believes 16 contact hours barring game day is nowhere near enough time for players to really improve themselves on a weekly basis.

“I think that is far too few hours to improve your game for full-time professional athletes that are earning $400,000 on average.”

No wonder St Kilda are so shit.

 

[Lord Nev]

No wonder St Kilda are so shit.

It's about the same amount of hours across the league in terms of what's in the contract - Would be interested to see the actual amount of hours per club though and how that measures against performance.

 

[Crusty Demon]

16hrs isn't even weekly contact hrs for uni! No wonder the game is getting harder and harder to watch. Getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for 16hrs a week? What a rort!

 

[Dancing Potato]

16 hours through the week plus game day. So, 20ish hours all up for a huge salary.

No wonder half our team can't hit a stock standard pass.

 

[Daemon]

Imagine spending even 2 more hours on tactics or game plan, maybe they might slightly have a clue.

 

[Daemon]

I can't remember who said this but I'm sure I'll be reminded, but someone said recently we need to play a tagger, namely Viney. I agree wholeheartedly. I know Harmes doesn't have a lot of fans here but I think he was always his best when he was locking down someone and finding his own ball. As soon as Goody went away from that his role on the team wasn't clear and form dropped off.

Just play a bloody tagger. It fits right into the defensive side of our game and if you get the right bloke it can be really effective. Can't really hurt with how much with are out of form anyway, but might just shut down a guy and help us get over the line.

Also we need to rediscover that hard edge from 2017-18. We are too bloody nice and just soft. No one fears playing the Dees. At the same time most decent teams know you can put even a little work into Gawn or Trac and no one will fly the flag.

 

[Toump Ass]

I can't remember who said this but I'm sure I'll be reminded, but someone said recently we need to play a tagger, namely Viney. I agree wholeheartedly. I know Harmes doesn't have a lot of fans here but I think he was always his best when he was locking down someone and finding his own ball. As soon as Goody went away from that his role on the team wasn't clear and form dropped off.

I brought that up the other day.

Berry absolutely smashed Oliver in the finals in 2022, he's murdering Bont tonight as well.

 

[Dancing Potato]

I can't remember who said this but I'm sure I'll be reminded, but someone said recently we need to play a tagger, namely Viney. I agree wholeheartedly. I know Harmes doesn't have a lot of fans here but I think he was always his best when he was locking down someone and finding his own ball. As soon as Goody went away from that his role on the team wasn't clear and form dropped off.

Just play a bloody tagger. It fits right into the defensive side of our game and if you get the right bloke it can be really effective. Can't really hurt with how much with are out of form anyway, but might just shut down a guy and help us get over the line.

Also we need to rediscover that hard edge from 2017-18. We are too bloody nice and just soft. No one fears playing the Dees. At the same time most decent teams know you can put even a little work into Gawn or Trac and no one will fly the flag.

Agree we should play a tagger, but to be fair Harmes hasn't been good in any role since probably 2021. Was good as a tagger back then when given the role though.

Viney might be best bet as a lockdown player given our current stocks, but I'm not sure if it suits him well. He really is just 'see ball, get ball' and I'm not confident in his ability to restrict the best players.

 

[Daemon]

I'm doing my 6 month gf rewatch because I'm lame and need some sort of footy positivity.

May - Lever - Petty

Such a strong backline yet we continue to persist with Petty forward because he performed in one or two games up there.

It's not the reason why we are so poor right now but by crikey there needs to be some recognition that his best position is back and we are not playing him there, with his confidence at an all time low.

He is not the forward Messiah.

 

[Jamurp]

16hrs isn't even weekly contact hrs for uni! No wonder the game is getting harder and harder to watch. Getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for 16hrs a week? What a rort!

yeah but that's 16 hours a week, then you have to factor in time spent at the TAB, probably ends up being your usual 38 working week for them.

 

[Topkent]

Lol where's all the mental health advocates on this? Guys train for like 15 minutes a week lol what a bunch of soft privileged campaigners

 

[markm106]

I'm doing my 6 month gf rewatch because I'm lame and need some sort of footy positivity.

May - Lever - Petty

Such a strong backline yet we continue to persist with Petty forward because he performed in one or two games up there.

It's not the reason why we are so poor right now but by crikey there needs to be some recognition that his best position is back and we are not playing him there, with his confidence at an all time low.

He is not the forward Messiah.

Yep. He’s a backman. And a damn good one at that. Tmac has been awesome this season and I can’t see Petty getting back in the backline this season. Unless they drop Tomo will Levee is out. But that won’t happen I don’t think. Hopefully they try to work Petty in down back. But thinking it’s something they’ll do over pre season if Petty is still on our list.

 

[booshboy]

Not for the first time in his decorated football career, life was threatening to close in on Simon Goodwin. As Melbourne’s off-season horrors rolled into the 2024 football year with a fresh set of allegations linking the Demons with illicit drugs, the coach moved to shield his family and protect himself and his reputation.

Goodwin placed defamation lawyer Rebekah Giles on a retainer. It was a different sort of delegating of responsibility than the one he finally embraced towards the end of the club’s annus horribilis in 2019, but Goodwin hopes it will achieve a similar result.

“You get to the point when enough is enough,” said Goodwin. “I love my job, I love my family and I love coming to work every day and I’m not going to let articles which are false and essentially relating to a board dispute affect that.

“I’m not going to disappear down a hole because I love this job too much and I love this life too much. But that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been easy. There have been times when it has been terrible. It [Goodwin’s brand] has taken a hammering.

“It’s been tough on me, but it’s been tougher on my parents and my children and my brothers.”

The damage to 2021 premiership coach Goodwin’s reputation began with a report of his alleged inappropriate behaviour dating back to before the club’s premiership. This was the start of a plethora of allegations relating to Goodwin, some players and the club’s culture.

Commentary intensified at the end of last season after Joel Smith tested positive to a banned substance on match-day and the club finally lost patience with its troubled star midfielder Clayton Oliver, suspending him from pre-season training and laying down the law in an ultimatum led by AFL and club bosses and the game’s most senior mental health official.

The saga was punctuated by Goodwin being forced to repeatedly deny allegations about his personal life including allegations of illicit drug use. It also took its toll on his players. Club captain Max Gawn has spoken often and with disgust at what his coach has endured.

“They [the players] know they [the allegations] are wrong, for a start,” said Goodwin. “That’s what hurts the most. They know how much I care about the club. The situation we’ve gone through as a club has been a board issue and it’s mischievous and it’s been tough on everyone.”

Depending on your view, Goodwin, who was going through a marriage break-up during 2020, needed to be pulled into line – something his CEO Gary Pert has repeatedly denied – or he has been a pawn in a much bigger game, collateral damage in the ongoing dispute between former Melbourne president Glen Bartlett and the board. Now Giles oversees every reference to Goodwin and his part of that saga.

But outsourcing has never been Goodwin’s strong suit. He said he had learned a lot about leadership from Gawn, who he describes as “leading by bringing people together. He leads by bringing enjoyment and fun to the contest even though he knows when to bring a harder edge. Hopefully, he’s learned some things from me too.”

He added: “If you had told me when I came to Melbourne that he would be our captain I would have been shocked.”

season.

Five days before the King’s Birthday clash with Collingwood the coach emerges from a lengthy match committee meeting at Casey, where team selection and the inevitable tough calls were not resolved, with Goodwin and his crew agreeing to “sleep on it” before meeting again 24 hours later.
He said he had decided to grant this relatively lengthy and public conversation “irrespective of the result”.
“My philosophy has been to lean into vulnerability and not walk away from it,” he said.
“One thing I’ve loved about our team is that we’ve always shown up. We’ve always been competitive and we’ve always given everything and for some reason that didn’t happen last week.
“The weekend was nowhere near what we stand for, but that doesn’t mean what is good about us is suddenly gone. It is a different group this year, but we don’t want to lose what we stand for.

“In terms of criticism about our culture ... I get it. Culture is something that never finishes, you’re always working on it.” Goodwin pauses and adds with half a smile: “And I guess the next question’s about Clayton? When you have incidents like his, those questions about our culture are going to come up.”

Longmire and has recently moved to check in with his former assistant, Richmond coach Adem Yze.

Buckley and Goodwin had both achieved some success at a time when both their marriages were breaking up, and the challenges presented by life and coaching at the highest level were shared by the two men on the occasional walk around the Tan.
Buckley commented several days ago that not all Melbourne’s players appeared fully fit – a comment that was juxtaposed on Nine’s Footy Classified alongside a shot of a jumper-less Oliver in the Traeger Park rooms on Sunday.
“I’m sure even Bucks, with his incredible pecks, had a 92-point loss,” said the coach, grinning. “He [Oliver] is working his way back to his best footy. He missed a big chunk of the pre-season and he had the hand issue and anyone who’s missed that amount of pre-season is going to struggle at times.
“I don’t think he’s far away from playing his best footy and he’s in the best place we’ve ever seen.”
The loss to Fremantle was numerically the club’s worst since Paul Roos’ last game as coach in August 2016 and prompted Roos to comment on the ABC: “They are really a talent-based team at the moment. That is the biggest thing that would be concerning Simon, that whatever he is telling them to do they are not listening.”

Goodwin said he was not aware of the comment. His response is brief and as pointed as it is pragmatic. Although Roos and Goodwin worked for two years as part of a coaching succession plan, the two were not close and according to Goodwin, have only spoken twice in almost eight years since Roos left.
“We had a working relationship,” said a blunt Goodwin. “When you perform like that you open yourself up to criticism, and it ranges from everything from communication to work rate to culture.”

Goodwin has been forced – at least temporarily – to cut another favourite son Angus Brayshaw adrift from the club.
The plan was for Brayshaw, after his shock enforced retirement, to remain at Melbourne in a development role, but any hope that Brayshaw could find some fulfilment off the field so soon was dashed after one week at the start of the season working on the interchange bench.

Brayshaw found it too upsetting being so close to the action and has chosen to explore other avenues away from football, including, at least this year, travel.
“We’ve given him the ultimate space,” said Goodwin. “It was a big shock to get that news. The trauma for him made being around the club and not being able to play his usual role too difficult.
“It didn’t quite pan out the way we had hoped so we’ve given him big space. I’m sad for Angus and we miss him. We miss his character, we miss his form and we miss his personality.”
Denying that the team let the Brayshaw incident with Collingwood’s Brayden Maynard distract it in the lead-up to last year’s semi-final against Carlton, Goodwin said: “We were angry, but we moved on. I don’t think we as a team dwelt on it and we got beaten by a better team on the night and some bad luck.

“The experience left us asking: ‘How do we perform better in finals?’”
Goodwin’s comments about Brodie Grundy coming to a club that valued him backfired but now that the former Collingwood ruckman has forged a new football career in Sydney, the Demons coach denies the club made a mistake in recruiting him.
“I wouldn’t say it was a mistake, I would say it hasn’t worked,” he said. “I’m proud of our football club for giving something a go and I’m proud we were brave enough to put our hands up and say it didn’t work and I’m proud of the way Brodie handled it.
“It can’t have been easy for him. He’s a proud player and it can’t have been easy playing in the VFL. Our communication with him was always open and honest and we always said to him we will do the best thing for you at the end of the year. And we stuck to our word.

“I’m so happy how it’s worked out for him in Sydney and Max is having a brilliant year. And Max was brilliant in his vulnerability. He was the premier ruckman in the competition and he was open to bringing someone in to share that role. We just got to the point where it wasn’t working for anyone and something had to give.”
Goodwin does not rule out anything in the Demons’ quest to improve their forward structure. He pointed to injuries interrupting efforts to give Harrison Petty and Jacob van Rooyen more game time together and the younger pair Daniel Turner and Matthew Jefferson for the future.

“Though if Charlie Curnow is available, we’d be very happy to take him,” he said laughing. “You rarely find those players because clubs rarely trade them, but we’ll look at all options – the draft, free agency, trade ... we’re in the win window.”

Goodwin proposed to his partner of three years Kristine Brooks last December. The Australian boss of the financial group Milford, Brooks lives with her children in Sydney – where father-of-three Goodwin will spend a brief break during the Demons’ bye – and commute when their living arrangements allow.
The pair will marry on an island off Bali in early January. “Kristine’s been a big support to me. She’s been fantastic. My children have been fantastic and Perty’s been fantastic.”
Goodwin offers a more positive assessment of Melbourne’s progression since the 2021 flag, which is at odds with the prevailing view that the Demons team that achieved the club’s first premiership since 1964 should have won at least another flag by now.
Under him, from 2017 the improvement continued on a linear trajectory until the disastrous 2019 season, where the coach embarked on the aforementioned and unofficial course of self-improvement, against a backdrop of the Pert review that led to structural change across the football department.
“That was a big instigator of change here and looking back, 2020 was a strong year for us in a tough year of COVID,” he said.

Melbourne ultimately just missed the finals after losing successive games in Cairns. “We had to win the last two to give ourselves a chance and we did that,” said Goodwin.
“We just missed out, but that was the moment we realised: ‘Wow – we have a team that is capable of some really serious footy.’ And since then we’ve produced every year to give ourselves a chance ...

“What we produced last weekend, we haven’t seen that for five years, but it brings things to the surface and adds a sharpness to the situation. And we’ve certainly got an expectation to play finals.”

Before Goodwin lost Brayshaw and Smith under circumstances beyond his control, the club had made a conscious decision to promote van Rooyen, Taj Woewodin and Blake Howes. Luke Dunstan and Michael Hibberd retired, James Jordon headed to Sydney and James Harmes to the Western Bulldogs.

“It’s a different group,” said Goodwin, “but we made a conscious decision to play those boys.

“Things in our game we’ve tried to change – I’m not going to say what – and it’s not working. When you try to make change you run the risk of losing your identity and right now, we haven’t got a clear identity ...

“Getting there doesn’t guarantee success and you’ve got to keep producing – Geelong has done it for the best part of 12 years for two premierships. Yes, we haven’t got it right, but we’ve been there and I’m proud of that.

“I’m proud we’ve been in that position and we’re not going anywhere.”

 

[Crusty Demon]

Saw him down the main street of Sorrento this afternoon with his Mrs. He looks fit.

 

[booshboy]

Saw him down the main street of Sorrento this afternoon with his Mrs. He looks fit.

what about his Mrs?

 

[Crusty Demon]

what about his Mrs?

Decent upgrade on his last one I reckon. These middle aged ex players usually upgrade around his age. Trade out the old, in with the new. Probably the best Outs and Ins since he's been coach I reckon.

 

[A11dAtP0w3R]

Not for the first time in his decorated football career, life was threatening to close in on Simon Goodwin. As Melbourne’s off-season horrors rolled into the 2024 football year with a fresh set of allegations linking the Demons with illicit drugs, the coach moved to shield his family and protect himself and his reputation.

Goodwin placed defamation lawyer Rebekah Giles on a retainer. It was a different sort of delegating of responsibility than the one he finally embraced towards the end of the club’s annus horribilis in 2019, but Goodwin hopes it will achieve a similar result.

“You get to the point when enough is enough,” said Goodwin. “I love my job, I love my family and I love coming to work every day and I’m not going to let articles which are false and essentially relating to a board dispute affect that.

“I’m not going to disappear down a hole because I love this job too much and I love this life too much. But that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been easy. There have been times when it has been terrible. It [Goodwin’s brand] has taken a hammering.

“It’s been tough on me, but it’s been tougher on my parents and my children and my brothers.”

The damage to 2021 premiership coach Goodwin’s reputation began with a report of his alleged inappropriate behaviour dating back to before the club’s premiership. This was the start of a plethora of allegations relating to Goodwin, some players and the club’s culture.

Commentary intensified at the end of last season after Joel Smith tested positive to a banned substance on match-day and the club finally lost patience with its troubled star midfielder Clayton Oliver, suspending him from pre-season training and laying down the law in an ultimatum led by AFL and club bosses and the game’s most senior mental health official.

The saga was punctuated by Goodwin being forced to repeatedly deny allegations about his personal life including allegations of illicit drug use. It also took its toll on his players. Club captain Max Gawn has spoken often and with disgust at what his coach has endured.

“They [the players] know they [the allegations] are wrong, for a start,” said Goodwin. “That’s what hurts the most. They know how much I care about the club. The situation we’ve gone through as a club has been a board issue and it’s mischievous and it’s been tough on everyone.”

Depending on your view, Goodwin, who was going through a marriage break-up during 2020, needed to be pulled into line – something his CEO Gary Pert has repeatedly denied – or he has been a pawn in a much bigger game, collateral damage in the ongoing dispute between former Melbourne president Glen Bartlett and the board. Now Giles oversees every reference to Goodwin and his part of that saga.

But outsourcing has never been Goodwin’s strong suit. He said he had learned a lot about leadership from Gawn, who he describes as “leading by bringing people together. He leads by bringing enjoyment and fun to the contest even though he knows when to bring a harder edge. Hopefully, he’s learned some things from me too.”

He added: “If you had told me when I came to Melbourne that he would be our captain I would have been shocked.”

season.

Five days before the King’s Birthday clash with Collingwood the coach emerges from a lengthy match committee meeting at Casey, where team selection and the inevitable tough calls were not resolved, with Goodwin and his crew agreeing to “sleep on it” before meeting again 24 hours later.
He said he had decided to grant this relatively lengthy and public conversation “irrespective of the result”.
“My philosophy has been to lean into vulnerability and not walk away from it,” he said.
“One thing I’ve loved about our team is that we’ve always shown up. We’ve always been competitive and we’ve always given everything and for some reason that didn’t happen last week.
“The weekend was nowhere near what we stand for, but that doesn’t mean what is good about us is suddenly gone. It is a different group this year, but we don’t want to lose what we stand for.

“In terms of criticism about our culture ... I get it. Culture is something that never finishes, you’re always working on it.” Goodwin pauses and adds with half a smile: “And I guess the next question’s about Clayton? When you have incidents like his, those questions about our culture are going to come up.”

Longmire and has recently moved to check in with his former assistant, Richmond coach Adem Yze.

Buckley and Goodwin had both achieved some success at a time when both their marriages were breaking up, and the challenges presented by life and coaching at the highest level were shared by the two men on the occasional walk around the Tan.
Buckley commented several days ago that not all Melbourne’s players appeared fully fit – a comment that was juxtaposed on Nine’s Footy Classified alongside a shot of a jumper-less Oliver in the Traeger Park rooms on Sunday.
“I’m sure even Bucks, with his incredible pecks, had a 92-point loss,” said the coach, grinning. “He [Oliver] is working his way back to his best footy. He missed a big chunk of the pre-season and he had the hand issue and anyone who’s missed that amount of pre-season is going to struggle at times.
“I don’t think he’s far away from playing his best footy and he’s in the best place we’ve ever seen.”
The loss to Fremantle was numerically the club’s worst since Paul Roos’ last game as coach in August 2016 and prompted Roos to comment on the ABC: “They are really a talent-based team at the moment. That is the biggest thing that would be concerning Simon, that whatever he is telling them to do they are not listening.”

Goodwin said he was not aware of the comment. His response is brief and as pointed as it is pragmatic. Although Roos and Goodwin worked for two years as part of a coaching succession plan, the two were not close and according to Goodwin, have only spoken twice in almost eight years since Roos left.
“We had a working relationship,” said a blunt Goodwin. “When you perform like that you open yourself up to criticism, and it ranges from everything from communication to work rate to culture.”

Goodwin has been forced – at least temporarily – to cut another favourite son Angus Brayshaw adrift from the club.
The plan was for Brayshaw, after his shock enforced retirement, to remain at Melbourne in a development role, but any hope that Brayshaw could find some fulfilment off the field so soon was dashed after one week at the start of the season working on the interchange bench.

Brayshaw found it too upsetting being so close to the action and has chosen to explore other avenues away from football, including, at least this year, travel.
“We’ve given him the ultimate space,” said Goodwin. “It was a big shock to get that news. The trauma for him made being around the club and not being able to play his usual role too difficult.
“It didn’t quite pan out the way we had hoped so we’ve given him big space. I’m sad for Angus and we miss him. We miss his character, we miss his form and we miss his personality.”
Denying that the team let the Brayshaw incident with Collingwood’s Brayden Maynard distract it in the lead-up to last year’s semi-final against Carlton, Goodwin said: “We were angry, but we moved on. I don’t think we as a team dwelt on it and we got beaten by a better team on the night and some bad luck.

“The experience left us asking: ‘How do we perform better in finals?’”
Goodwin’s comments about Brodie Grundy coming to a club that valued him backfired but now that the former Collingwood ruckman has forged a new football career in Sydney, the Demons coach denies the club made a mistake in recruiting him.
“I wouldn’t say it was a mistake, I would say it hasn’t worked,” he said. “I’m proud of our football club for giving something a go and I’m proud we were brave enough to put our hands up and say it didn’t work and I’m proud of the way Brodie handled it.
“It can’t have been easy for him. He’s a proud player and it can’t have been easy playing in the VFL. Our communication with him was always open and honest and we always said to him we will do the best thing for you at the end of the year. And we stuck to our word.

“I’m so happy how it’s worked out for him in Sydney and Max is having a brilliant year. And Max was brilliant in his vulnerability. He was the premier ruckman in the competition and he was open to bringing someone in to share that role. We just got to the point where it wasn’t working for anyone and something had to give.”
Goodwin does not rule out anything in the Demons’ quest to improve their forward structure. He pointed to injuries interrupting efforts to give Harrison Petty and Jacob van Rooyen more game time together and the younger pair Daniel Turner and Matthew Jefferson for the future.

“Though if Charlie Curnow is available, we’d be very happy to take him,” he said laughing. “You rarely find those players because clubs rarely trade them, but we’ll look at all options – the draft, free agency, trade ... we’re in the win window.”

Goodwin proposed to his partner of three years Kristine Brooks last December. The Australian boss of the financial group Milford, Brooks lives with her children in Sydney – where father-of-three Goodwin will spend a brief break during the Demons’ bye – and commute when their living arrangements allow.
The pair will marry on an island off Bali in early January. “Kristine’s been a big support to me. She’s been fantastic. My children have been fantastic and Perty’s been fantastic.”
Goodwin offers a more positive assessment of Melbourne’s progression since the 2021 flag, which is at odds with the prevailing view that the Demons team that achieved the club’s first premiership since 1964 should have won at least another flag by now.
Under him, from 2017 the improvement continued on a linear trajectory until the disastrous 2019 season, where the coach embarked on the aforementioned and unofficial course of self-improvement, against a backdrop of the Pert review that led to structural change across the football department.
“That was a big instigator of change here and looking back, 2020 was a strong year for us in a tough year of COVID,” he said.

Melbourne ultimately just missed the finals after losing successive games in Cairns. “We had to win the last two to give ourselves a chance and we did that,” said Goodwin.
“We just missed out, but that was the moment we realised: ‘Wow – we have a team that is capable of some really serious footy.’ And since then we’ve produced every year to give ourselves a chance ...

“What we produced last weekend, we haven’t seen that for five years, but it brings things to the surface and adds a sharpness to the situation. And we’ve certainly got an expectation to play finals.”

Before Goodwin lost Brayshaw and Smith under circumstances beyond his control, the club had made a conscious decision to promote van Rooyen, Taj Woewodin and Blake Howes. Luke Dunstan and Michael Hibberd retired, James Jordon headed to Sydney and James Harmes to the Western Bulldogs.

“It’s a different group,” said Goodwin, “but we made a conscious decision to play those boys.

“Things in our game we’ve tried to change – I’m not going to say what – and it’s not working. When you try to make change you run the risk of losing your identity and right now, we haven’t got a clear identity ...

“Getting there doesn’t guarantee success and you’ve got to keep producing – Geelong has done it for the best part of 12 years for two premierships. Yes, we haven’t got it right, but we’ve been there and I’m proud of that.

“I’m proud we’ve been in that position and we’re not going anywhere.”

Predictable load of toss.

 

[schmuttt]

Predictable load of toss.

Yep. I’m sure he’s a good bloke but he is so unimpressive in the media. Nothing introspective in that article, no real reflection or honesty about how we are playing.

 

[jhong]

Not for the first time in his decorated football career, life was threatening to close in on Simon Goodwin. As Melbourne’s off-season horrors rolled into the 2024 football year with a fresh set of allegations linking the Demons with illicit drugs, the coach moved to shield his family and protect himself and his reputation.

Goodwin placed defamation lawyer Rebekah Giles on a retainer. It was a different sort of delegating of responsibility than the one he finally embraced towards the end of the club’s annus horribilis in 2019, but Goodwin hopes it will achieve a similar result.

“You get to the point when enough is enough,” said Goodwin. “I love my job, I love my family and I love coming to work every day and I’m not going to let articles which are false and essentially relating to a board dispute affect that.

“I’m not going to disappear down a hole because I love this job too much and I love this life too much. But that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been easy. There have been times when it has been terrible. It [Goodwin’s brand] has taken a hammering.

“It’s been tough on me, but it’s been tougher on my parents and my children and my brothers.”

The damage to 2021 premiership coach Goodwin’s reputation began with a report of his alleged inappropriate behaviour dating back to before the club’s premiership. This was the start of a plethora of allegations relating to Goodwin, some players and the club’s culture.

Commentary intensified at the end of last season after Joel Smith tested positive to a banned substance on match-day and the club finally lost patience with its troubled star midfielder Clayton Oliver, suspending him from pre-season training and laying down the law in an ultimatum led by AFL and club bosses and the game’s most senior mental health official.

The saga was punctuated by Goodwin being forced to repeatedly deny allegations about his personal life including allegations of illicit drug use. It also took its toll on his players. Club captain Max Gawn has spoken often and with disgust at what his coach has endured.

“They [the players] know they [the allegations] are wrong, for a start,” said Goodwin. “That’s what hurts the most. They know how much I care about the club. The situation we’ve gone through as a club has been a board issue and it’s mischievous and it’s been tough on everyone.”

Depending on your view, Goodwin, who was going through a marriage break-up during 2020, needed to be pulled into line – something his CEO Gary Pert has repeatedly denied – or he has been a pawn in a much bigger game, collateral damage in the ongoing dispute between former Melbourne president Glen Bartlett and the board. Now Giles oversees every reference to Goodwin and his part of that saga.

But outsourcing has never been Goodwin’s strong suit. He said he had learned a lot about leadership from Gawn, who he describes as “leading by bringing people together. He leads by bringing enjoyment and fun to the contest even though he knows when to bring a harder edge. Hopefully, he’s learned some things from me too.”

He added: “If you had told me when I came to Melbourne that he would be our captain I would have been shocked.”

season.

Five days before the King’s Birthday clash with Collingwood the coach emerges from a lengthy match committee meeting at Casey, where team selection and the inevitable tough calls were not resolved, with Goodwin and his crew agreeing to “sleep on it” before meeting again 24 hours later.
He said he had decided to grant this relatively lengthy and public conversation “irrespective of the result”.
“My philosophy has been to lean into vulnerability and not walk away from it,” he said.
“One thing I’ve loved about our team is that we’ve always shown up. We’ve always been competitive and we’ve always given everything and for some reason that didn’t happen last week.
“The weekend was nowhere near what we stand for, but that doesn’t mean what is good about us is suddenly gone. It is a different group this year, but we don’t want to lose what we stand for.

“In terms of criticism about our culture ... I get it. Culture is something that never finishes, you’re always working on it.” Goodwin pauses and adds with half a smile: “And I guess the next question’s about Clayton? When you have incidents like his, those questions about our culture are going to come up.”

Longmire and has recently moved to check in with his former assistant, Richmond coach Adem Yze.

Buckley and Goodwin had both achieved some success at a time when both their marriages were breaking up, and the challenges presented by life and coaching at the highest level were shared by the two men on the occasional walk around the Tan.
Buckley commented several days ago that not all Melbourne’s players appeared fully fit – a comment that was juxtaposed on Nine’s Footy Classified alongside a shot of a jumper-less Oliver in the Traeger Park rooms on Sunday.
“I’m sure even Bucks, with his incredible pecks, had a 92-point loss,” said the coach, grinning. “He [Oliver] is working his way back to his best footy. He missed a big chunk of the pre-season and he had the hand issue and anyone who’s missed that amount of pre-season is going to struggle at times.
“I don’t think he’s far away from playing his best footy and he’s in the best place we’ve ever seen.”
The loss to Fremantle was numerically the club’s worst since Paul Roos’ last game as coach in August 2016 and prompted Roos to comment on the ABC: “They are really a talent-based team at the moment. That is the biggest thing that would be concerning Simon, that whatever he is telling them to do they are not listening.”

Goodwin said he was not aware of the comment. His response is brief and as pointed as it is pragmatic. Although Roos and Goodwin worked for two years as part of a coaching succession plan, the two were not close and according to Goodwin, have only spoken twice in almost eight years since Roos left.
“We had a working relationship,” said a blunt Goodwin. “When you perform like that you open yourself up to criticism, and it ranges from everything from communication to work rate to culture.”

Goodwin has been forced – at least temporarily – to cut another favourite son Angus Brayshaw adrift from the club.
The plan was for Brayshaw, after his shock enforced retirement, to remain at Melbourne in a development role, but any hope that Brayshaw could find some fulfilment off the field so soon was dashed after one week at the start of the season working on the interchange bench.

Brayshaw found it too upsetting being so close to the action and has chosen to explore other avenues away from football, including, at least this year, travel.
“We’ve given him the ultimate space,” said Goodwin. “It was a big shock to get that news. The trauma for him made being around the club and not being able to play his usual role too difficult.
“It didn’t quite pan out the way we had hoped so we’ve given him big space. I’m sad for Angus and we miss him. We miss his character, we miss his form and we miss his personality.”
Denying that the team let the Brayshaw incident with Collingwood’s Brayden Maynard distract it in the lead-up to last year’s semi-final against Carlton, Goodwin said: “We were angry, but we moved on. I don’t think we as a team dwelt on it and we got beaten by a better team on the night and some bad luck.

“The experience left us asking: ‘How do we perform better in finals?’”
Goodwin’s comments about Brodie Grundy coming to a club that valued him backfired but now that the former Collingwood ruckman has forged a new football career in Sydney, the Demons coach denies the club made a mistake in recruiting him.
“I wouldn’t say it was a mistake, I would say it hasn’t worked,” he said. “I’m proud of our football club for giving something a go and I’m proud we were brave enough to put our hands up and say it didn’t work and I’m proud of the way Brodie handled it.
“It can’t have been easy for him. He’s a proud player and it can’t have been easy playing in the VFL. Our communication with him was always open and honest and we always said to him we will do the best thing for you at the end of the year. And we stuck to our word.

“I’m so happy how it’s worked out for him in Sydney and Max is having a brilliant year. And Max was brilliant in his vulnerability. He was the premier ruckman in the competition and he was open to bringing someone in to share that role. We just got to the point where it wasn’t working for anyone and something had to give.”
Goodwin does not rule out anything in the Demons’ quest to improve their forward structure. He pointed to injuries interrupting efforts to give Harrison Petty and Jacob van Rooyen more game time together and the younger pair Daniel Turner and Matthew Jefferson for the future.

“Though if Charlie Curnow is available, we’d be very happy to take him,” he said laughing. “You rarely find those players because clubs rarely trade them, but we’ll look at all options – the draft, free agency, trade ... we’re in the win window.”

Goodwin proposed to his partner of three years Kristine Brooks last December. The Australian boss of the financial group Milford, Brooks lives with her children in Sydney – where father-of-three Goodwin will spend a brief break during the Demons’ bye – and commute when their living arrangements allow.
The pair will marry on an island off Bali in early January. “Kristine’s been a big support to me. She’s been fantastic. My children have been fantastic and Perty’s been fantastic.”
Goodwin offers a more positive assessment of Melbourne’s progression since the 2021 flag, which is at odds with the prevailing view that the Demons team that achieved the club’s first premiership since 1964 should have won at least another flag by now.
Under him, from 2017 the improvement continued on a linear trajectory until the disastrous 2019 season, where the coach embarked on the aforementioned and unofficial course of self-improvement, against a backdrop of the Pert review that led to structural change across the football department.
“That was a big instigator of change here and looking back, 2020 was a strong year for us in a tough year of COVID,” he said.

Melbourne ultimately just missed the finals after losing successive games in Cairns. “We had to win the last two to give ourselves a chance and we did that,” said Goodwin.
“We just missed out, but that was the moment we realised: ‘Wow – we have a team that is capable of some really serious footy.’ And since then we’ve produced every year to give ourselves a chance ...

“What we produced last weekend, we haven’t seen that for five years, but it brings things to the surface and adds a sharpness to the situation. And we’ve certainly got an expectation to play finals.”

Before Goodwin lost Brayshaw and Smith under circumstances beyond his control, the club had made a conscious decision to promote van Rooyen, Taj Woewodin and Blake Howes. Luke Dunstan and Michael Hibberd retired, James Jordon headed to Sydney and James Harmes to the Western Bulldogs.

“It’s a different group,” said Goodwin, “but we made a conscious decision to play those boys.

“Things in our game we’ve tried to change – I’m not going to say what – and it’s not working. When you try to make change you run the risk of losing your identity and right now, we haven’t got a clear identity ...

“Getting there doesn’t guarantee success and you’ve got to keep producing – Geelong has done it for the best part of 12 years for two premierships. Yes, we haven’t got it right, but we’ve been there and I’m proud of that.

“I’m proud we’ve been in that position and we’re not going anywhere.”

Puff piece .

 

[Bluelegs]

If you work in an office you hear this sort of shit a lot from managers and HR, leading teams style nonsense, its ****ing cringe.

Goodwin must be addicted to LinkedIn with how many buzzwords he tries on.

 

[Bluelegs]

What I liked about that article was how Goody went from a half smile to a grin over half the article before his face darkened when Oliver being fat was brought up.

Real Chris Farley moment