Mark Robinson on the Demons and Simon Goodwin’s alleged bullying and behavioural issues

There’s more to the Simon Goodwin puzzle than a punt and a few beers, writes Mark Robinson. But how deep does the story go? He looks at the why, who and what now.

You don’t have to be Jack Reacher to suspect there’s more to this Simon Goodwin puzzle than a punt and a few beers with his players at the Sorrento Hotel.

If it were just a punt and a few beers on a couple of sunny Saturdays at the pub for the rich and famous, it would be fair to ask: Why all the fuss?

But … if it were just a punt and a few beers, why is deposed Melbourne president Glen Bartlett and director Mohan Jesudason having a meeting with AFL boss Gillon McLachlan and Commission chairman Richard Goyder in February last year about Goodwin’s alleged behaviour?

A high-powered meeting over a coach having a beer?

Why is Bartlett and the board conducting a months-long investigation into Goodwin and his alleged social activities and, as we learned this week, Goodwin’s workplace conduct?

Why is McLachlan even talking about an outcome that would have seen Goodwin and Demons chief executive Gary Pert sacked?

Please, this is not about the punt and the beers, it’s much more clandestine than that, and if Jack Reacher were here, he’d probably already have the answers.

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The rest of us have to read between the lines, determine if there are facts or shadows, if it’s rumours or hearsay, or if there’s a smoking gun or a pop gun.

That’s a dangerous way to examine what potentially was a meltdown of a football club and the sacking of coach, a coach who was then able to pick himself up amid an internal and personal examination and forge a memorable premiership.

It’s an astonishing story of resilience and self belief.

If only Basil Zempilas gave Goodwin the microphone on the grand final podium and allowed Goodwin to speak from the heart, with rivers of emotion and relief and with the knowledge that six months previous the president was considering sacking him, well, we could’ve had another Choco Williams moment.

The revelations this week about what unfolded at Melbourne through October and the summer of 2020-21, involving Goodwin, Pert, Bartlett, the board, new president Kate Roffey, ousted medico Dr Zeeshan Arain, and the two highest office holders at the AFL is — and if we can borrow an F-bomb from Goodwin — a clusterf...

How Goodwin was able to keep himself together and his focus on his priorities, which was his players, in an already high-pressured environment is a lecture in focus and commitment.

Friends of Goodwin talk of his almighty depth of determination as a player and coach, and how that determination to get the best out of himself, has been instilled in this Melbourne team.

A former gambling addict, Goodwin, friends say, is addicted to football — and his kids — and the players just love him for all that he delivers.

“IT WAS NOT TO CHAPERONE GOODY....”

If you believe Dr Arain, however, Goodwin was allegedly off tap.

The coach was accused of bullying by Dr Arain, which Goodwin denied and Bartlett supported, and there’s hairs around two aspects of that showdown.

Clearly, the pair didn’t get along in their respective roles and one story has it, that when the Demons were told they had to cut $3 million from their soft cap, it was an open secret Dr Arain would get the heave ho.

Especially when the professional relationship between Goodwin and Dr Laura Lallenec — who spent 2020 in the hub with the Demons while Arain stayed in Melbourne — was without any tension.

Lallenec is now head doctor at the club.

Still, the hairs surround the fact Arain was sacked days after raising concerns about Goodwin’s behaviour — which later emerged to include an alleged F-bomb tirade about Angus Brayshaw and concussion — and the fact the club paid Dr Arain a six-figure sum for unfair dismissal.

The club said this week they found no evidence of bullying.

So why the pay out? Was it to avoid an even more costly court case or was there a semblance of fact in the accusation?

By the way, it’s understood Brayshaw and his parents have no issue with Goodwin’s conduct.

Dr Arain also detailed concerns about club “culture’’ in an interview with Bartlett in December 2020, and, pointedly, also said he was told Alan Richardson was asked to chaperone Goodwin on a trip to Las Vegas in 2019.

The club maintains the trip was not akin to the Hangover movie but an AFL Coaches Association-endorsed professional development program attended by Goodwin, Richardson and Demons assistant coach Justin Plapp, and about 15 other sporting professionals, including staff from Essendon, the Melbourne Storm and Cricket Australia.

Goodwin didn’t select Las Vegas as his post-season destination, the program was held there and it included visits to Cirque du Soleil and pro bull riding, for example, to learn about overcoming fear of performance.

The program also took in visits to San Francisco Giants and Stanford University in California.

It’s hardly waking up on the roof of casino or getting a Mike Tyson facial tattoo is it?

A source told the Herald Sun that Richardson, who had only been at Melbourne for a week in his role as head of coaching, joined Goodwin so the pair could a) develop a relationship and b) outline their football philosophies and strategy.

“It was not to chaperone Goody,” the source said.

Player manager Craig kelly said he had ‘open and honest conversations’ with client and Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin. Picture: Michael Klein

OPEN AND HONEST CONVERSATIONS

Despite Melbourne’s best efforts this week to defuse, or at least play down what had to be a knife’s edge environment this time 12 months ago, Goodwin’s manager Craig Kelly muddied the waters slightly when he admitted this week he held “open and honest conversations” with the coach last summer.

About what, Kelly didn’t say.

“Simon and the club worked hard at the end of 2020 on the people around him and in the football department and the club. Simon worked hard on himself,” Kelly told Nine newspapers.

The waters were already muddied 12 months ago when McLachlan harangued Goodwin to Bartlett and Jesudason in their meeting in February last year.

“I know for a fact your coach is out drinking with players at the Sorrento pub – are you crazy? That doesn’t work,” McLachlan said.

“Hanging out with his players, drinking and betting – just the wrong behaviour. There has to be enough distance. You need to respect him and like him, don’t have to love him, but respect him. You can’t be doing that s..t. You have to make tough decisions. It doesn’t work.”

Umm, yes it does. And yes it did.

Ask the skipper, Max Gawn.

On Wednesday he said he’d have a beer with Goodwin any time and on Thursday he did just that, at a wedding at — can you believe it — the Sorrento Hotel.

It’s understood that when Pert spoke to McLachlan on a separate occasion about McLachlan’s concerns, Pert said he’d be more disappointed if Goodwin was in the pub and was not having a beer with his players.

What made 12 months ago even messier was McLachlan, at the time, told Bartlett that he should think about removing Goodwin and Pert if it was required.

Importantly, Goodwin, around about the same time, told the club his social behaviour was not a problem.

And about the same time, Bartlett wanted to drug test all senior staff because he feared a possible poor club culture.

Jack Reacher’s head would be spinning.

Melbourne president Kate Roffey hugs coach Simon Goodwin after the Demons break a 57-year premiership drought at Perth Stadium.

MELBOURNE’S STRONG CASE

Fast forward 12 months and the dirty laundry has been made public.

Initially, there was a coolness when players fronted up for training this week but football clubs being football clubs, that coolness disappeared very quickly.

Footy clubs can turn tense moments into fits of laughter with a single quip, and the ice is broken and that’s probably what happened with the players.

The club put out two press releases which clearly stated the club, and new president Kate Roffey’s, full support of Goodwin and, later, the club’s strong position on their concussion protocols.

The club does have a strong case.

The club’s internal review and investigation into Goodwin post the 2020 season — conducted by Pert – found nothing sinister.

Changes were made to the footy department, Bartlett was toppled, Roffey took over and Goodwin hoisted the club’s first flag since 1964.

All the while, Goodwin, an introvert who’d prefer to avoid media conferences, was dealing with a marriage split.

If Richie Benaud covered footy, he would’ve said “marvellous effort that”.

AFL boss Gillon McLachlan met with two key Melbourne officials in February 2021 to discuss club concerns over Demons coach Simon Goodwin’s behaviour.

DEES v THE WORLD

The events of this week and the focus on Goodwin could be a blessing for Gawn and his playing group.

Motivation and mission statements are often contrived and Melbourne’s determination to win this year’s premiership at the MCG in front of their fans was already a factor.

Now, they have what they would consider was an unnecessary attempt to assassinate the character of their coach, and the media storm which revealed it.

The Us v The World mentality is alive and well.

St Kilda under captain Nick Riewoldt and coach Ross Lyon had the “bubble” which didn’t deliver he Saints a flag but delivered them a ruthless gang mentality.

“Now that I’m finished and I can reflect on it all, when you’ve got the bubble or us against the world or whatever you want to call it, that’s footy at its best,’’ Riewoldt said.

“It’s such a hard thing to capture, but once you’ve got it, when it crystallises, that’s when you find yourself operating on another level.

“You can’t measure it, but you can see it and feel it. Melbourne have got it, they found it last year.”

And this week?

“It’s an opportunity, to say, ‘Hey, people are coming for us, they want our crown’. This goes into their back pockets. This is a reminder that no matter what happened six months ago, people are still trying to chip you and to undermine you.’’

The events of 12 months ago, which prompted a deep examination of Goodwin, are probably known by 15 people, at most, and the full story might surface — or it might not.

Goodwin will talk at length when he chooses and, it must be stressed, he has said he has nothing to hide.

And McLachlan when he conducts his next interviews will be asked to explain his inflammatory reaction to a coach having a few beers and a punt at the pub.

Maybe there was a cover-up, but not necessarily a cover-up of any wrongdoing or illegality.

Maybe there was nothing to see all along and, as is said, lies got around the world before the truth got out of bed. Or something like that.

Maybe, it’s a cover-up of all cover-ups.

As for Goodwin, he’s a premiership player, a captain, a Hall of Famer, a premiership coach, a former gambling addict, a sometimes drinker, a sometimes punter, a survivor, a leader, a father and, to his players and friends and family, an inspiration.

Jack Reacher would certainly tell us that.

The rest of the story momentarily remains hush hush.

Originally published as Mark Robinson on the Demons and Simon Goodwin’s alleged bullying and behavioural issues