Why AFL clubs could do a lot worse than to knock on Woodville-West Torrens coach Michael Godden’s door

WOODVILLE-West Torrens boss Michael Godden has the SANFL Eagles flying — and should be well and truly on the radar of AFL clubs seeking assistant coaches, says Reece Homfray.

WITH AFL clubs increasingly turning to ex-AFL stars to fill their coaching vacancies there is one man in the SANFL who would prove a more-than-adequate exception to the rule.

Eagles coach Michael Godden must surely be looked at for an assistant’s role at the top level.

This Sunday will be the ninth grand final the club has played in across three grades — league, reserves and under-18s — since Godden was appointed in 2010.

This year alone, all three sides finished on top of the ladder.

The 18s lost their grand final to Norwood last weekend but the reserves are undefeated and the league side, which had a 16-2 season record, will start favourite against West Adelaide in the grand final at Adelaide Oval on Sunday.

While this may not go over particularly well at Woodville-West Torrens, which has re-signed Godden for a further two years, Port Adelaide and Adelaide could do a lot worse than to keep him in their sights.

Port Adelaide’s deck appears full with two assistants out and two in for 2016 — including Godden’s old adversary at Norwood, Nathan Bassett — but the Crows may be in for a significant restructure depending on the senior coaching appointment.

In the past fortnight, former AFL stars Chad Cornes and Josh Carr, with 455 games between them, have taken on SANFL roles to find out whether they can coach a senior team in their own right.

Godden — with a grand total of zero AFL games after a year on the Crows list in 1992 — has been doing that for the best part of a decade.

Hailing from the farming community at Lameroo in the Mallee, he understands the game from the ground up and coached two reserves flags at Glenelg before his breakthrough at the Eagles.

Throw in stints as the SANFL’s state coach (for three wins) as well as its under-20 coach and the resume stacks up.

He took the Eagles to a surprise preliminary final in his first year in 2010 then won the premiership which ended Central District’s decade of dominance in 2011.

The Eagles haven’t missed the finals in the four years since but Godden had to almost rebuild the senior side following an exodus of senior players, who were at the end of their careers after the 2011 flag.

Now the Eagles find themselves back in the big one in what has arguably been the most impressive season of Godden’s time at the helm

This year he’s changed the way the Eagles play — they’re still good to watch but, after visiting AFL clubs Hawthorn and North Melbourne and studying Sydney in the off-season, Godden has ensured there is an emphasis on defence-first and structure to their game.

The man recognised as the greatest SANFL coach of the modern era, Central District’s Roy Laird, would be a huge asset to any one of the 18 AFL clubs but has shown no interest in going to the next level.

Godden, however, has, although his comments when quizzed Tuesday were reserved.

“This (coaching) is my life and for me it’s about the development of young men, the challenge is winning on the weekends,” he said while at the SANFL’s grand final press conference.

“At some point I would like to get to the highest level but right now we’re trying to build something at this football club and we are 100 per cent focused on Sunday.”

In recent years Bassett has gone from Norwood to Essendon and now the Power and Josh Francou from North Adelaide to Sydney. There is no reason why Godden couldn’t do the same.

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