Off-field grenades, divided board, leadership changes: What led to Simon Goodwin’s downfall?
In February, Brad Green fiercely defended Simon Goodwin. In August, he told Goodwin he was done. So what changed from the summer of love? Jay Clark goes inside the Dees’ dysfunction.
- Simon Goodwin wasn’t the Dees man, here’s who could be
- What the cost of a sacked coach means for Dees in 2026
- The reason Goodwin simply had to go
It took Melbourne exactly six weeks to crumble around Simon Goodwin.
On February 28, interim president Brad Green provided the strongest endorsement of his premiership coach’s capabilities, knowing the club needed a bridging year to change the game style and personnel in 2025.
Off-field grenades had been going off for years in the boardroom and there was a split around the futures of superstar midfielders Clayton Oliver and Christian Petracca.
But as the summer of love concluded at Melbourne five months ago, Green hit out at the coach’s critics and declared emphatically “We have got a beauty. Players love him. He is very smart and strategic. He is a deep-thinker of the game, and he is emotive.”
“It annoys me and frustrates me that he doesn’t get the respect and kudos he deserves.
“It sh-ts me, actually, that this industry bags Simon Goodwin. He gets battered and bruised by everyone.”
Yet on Monday night, it was Green who delivered the left hook which sunk Goodwin and blindsided the players when four Melbourne officials knocked on the door about 7pm at Goodwin’s home in the eastern suburbs.
There was Green, board member Angela Williams, footy boss Alan Richardson and interim CEO David Chippindall.
With grim looks on their faces, the four senior figures sat with Goodwin in his own home and said the club needed a new voice.
It was the right time, they said.
But there was no other detail. And nothing more forthcoming in an unconvincing press conference at the MCG on Tuesday.
No explanation on the team’s flaws or misgivings about coaching style or moves, inefficiencies in the forward half, midfield connection woes or differences in vision.
The flummoxed and devastated looks on the faces of Melbourne’s senior players were clear on Tuesday, with one of the most respected Melbourne figures labelling the decision to move on Goodwin “unbelievable”.
Another said it was “embarrassing”.
Captain Max Gawn looked forlorn.
Melbourne blinked this week because it didn’t want the heat that would come next year with a coach out of contract in the same way Western Bulldogs stared directly into the fire and delayed a call on Luke Beveridge’s future this year.
At the start of this season, Goodwin was given the imprimatur to make considerable changes to the game plan and team mix. “A new way”, Goodwin declared at the annual general meeting in December.
And the coach thought he had another season in 2026, as per his contract, to complete the work.
For all the team’s disappointing performances this year, they still beat Fremantle at the MCG in round 6, knocked off Brisbane at the Gabba by 11 points, hammered Sydney Swans and fell one point short of Collingwood.
Clearly, the team was in transition, and few experts had Melbourne in their top-eights at the start of the season.
Simply, Melbourne knew themselves the team was not a quick fix this year after blowing its chances in back-to-back top-four finishes in 2022-23 and sinking down the ladder last year without Petracca, who played on with life-threatening injuries on King’s Birthday and was taken to the wrong hospital.
What a stuff-up, but there’s a long list.
The game had sped past the Demons since the 2021 premiership and the inability to convert in the forward half has been maddening for the coaches and players this season.
But this is also a team with 33-year-old veteran Jake Melksham playing at centre half forward this season.
But if the Demons had underperformed on the field, just as many mistakes have come off it at a club which former coach Paul Roos once said was surrounded by a “veil of negativity”.
At senior level, it had been a disastrous couple of seasons including the diabolical handling of Oliver who was put up for trade and then clawed back, Petracca’s life-threatening injuries, Joel Smith’s drugs charge, the facility disaster, Kate Roffey’s radio interview downfall and the Glen Bartlett boardroom brawl.
“There has been a real heaviness and it seeps into your footy club,” Goodwin told the Herald Sun in February.
So if Melbourne’s on-field performance since the flag had disappointed the board, a quick glance in the mirror would have revealed an abysmal scorecard for the directors as well.
And Goodwin pointedly said on repeat in the press conference on Tuesday teams needed off-field stability to flourish. And that is exactly what he has lacked.
It was a classy exit from a man who has had four separate presidents (including Steve Smith from Tuscany) and three CEOs.
The off-field leaders at Melbourne have made the most wobbly-looking Jenga towers look more stable than their own setup in recent times.
And it was in Adelaide that Melbourne’s Jenga tower came crashing down less than two months after Green’s February love letter to his coach.
But by the time the Demons had lost in Gather Round, they had done the biggest six week backflip.
They’d sunk to a 0-5 start with a terrible loss to Essendon in Adelaide which prompted incoming new president Smith, (the fourth one, remember) to meet with captain Max Gawn the next morning.
Alarm bells.
At the same time, Melbourne issued a statement about the poor performance but made no mention of the coach or its support or otherwise for him.
That is when the writing first appeared on the wall for Goodwin and he felt it. Instead of publicly backing Goodwin, they put him on the clock in mid-April just six weeks after Green’s declaration of support.
Even though they knew the path would be rocky given the midfield issues and lack of forward targets, and the question marks on the futures of Oliver and Petracca remained a distraction, the Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera cyclone at Marvel Stadium was the last straw for the club last week.
Who knows why they waited until the 83-point win over West Coast on Saturday to pull the pin on the coach.
The dysfunction at this club at the highest level has been a shambles and captain Max Gawn knows it because he has been the one to clean up every new mess in his Triple M radio interviews every week.
How he has bit his tongue at times remains a mystery, but Gawn knows how jumpy his club can get.
In April, the club appointed a new CEO, Paul Guerra, who couldn’t start work at the club until next month, leaving the keys to Chippindall (we think) who was disappointed to be overlooked himself.
Goodwin would not have known where to turn for discussions, advice or support as he attempted to fast-track a mini-rebuild of sorts with a team which was in the process of pivoting to a new style and way of playing.
Instead of having a strong backing, the man who led the Demons from being a basket case to premiership team (along with Roos) was left looking over his shoulder all year.
Where Melbourne heads next is anyone’s guess.
Clearly, clubs are targeting Petracca and the club may have to pay up to half of Oliver’s salary to seal his move one year after the club should have traded him to Geelong.
The deal was done by his management, and his papers were stamped to the Cattery. But the board blinked, again.
Green was asked what he wanted in a new coach on Tuesday and he said the club wasn’t sure yet.
Hopefully, they can work it out. But there are no guarantees.
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