By Jon Pierik and Peter Ryan
Melbourne midfielder Clayton Oliver says he would never have voluntarily left the club but would have agreed to a trade if the Demons had indicated they did not want him to stay during the most recent trade period when other clubs were made aware he might be traded.
The 26-year-old premiership midfielder said he respects the way senior coach Simon Goodwin drives him to get the best out of himself, and he wants to remain loyal to the coach.
“Obviously I did not want to leave. I love the boys and love the club and I love ‘Goody’ (senior coach Simon Goodwin),” Oliver said. “I owe my career to him so I would never leave someone who has been so loyal to me.”
Oliver, who begins a seven-year deal in 2024 said he intended to put his best foot forward to the club and meet the standards they set for him.
“[I want to] be the best teammate I can be and be the best person I can be for the Melbourne Football Club,” Oliver said.
Melbourne midfielder Clayton Oliver.Credit: Getty Images
He said he was “flat” that he is once again in the headlines with the club telling members Oliver faces personal challenges.
Oliver told Seven News that the medication he is taking for ADHD contributed to him needing to attend hospital in an ambulance three weeks ago after he collapsed at teammate Joel Smith’s house.
He said the medication sometimes left him lightheaded and with a high heart rate and he had been on an exercise bike the previous day. When he woke at Smith’s house to get a drink he found himself on the ground after hitting his head.
After receiving scans he was allowed to leave hospital.
The club put out a statement on Monday saying he needed to meet club imposed standards to remain part of the football program with Oliver admitting the off-season has affected him.
“It has been a little bit stressful. It usually doesn’t get to me,” Oliver said.
Earlier on Tuesday Goodwin revealed he had not spoken to Smith since the Melbourne forward tested positive to a banned drug.
Smith was provisionally suspended after he returned a positive test for cocaine on match day after the round 23 clash against Hawthorn. The case is now under investigation by the AFL and Sport Integrity Australia.
Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin.Credit: Getty Images
In a pre-recorded interview on SEN on Tuesday, Goodwin said he had not discussed the issue with Smith.
“I can only go by how I feel, and when I first heard, I was incredibly angry, frustrated, to think that potentially we have a player in round 23 on the eve of a finals series not doing everything possible to help the success of our footy team. I can only imagine that same feeling would be permeating through our supporter base,” Goodwin said.
“I haven’t spoken to Joel. I am going to let that process play out because I have a level of anger, of frustration towards it. There are the right people that are talking to Joel from a welfare perspective and are working really closely with him.”
Goodwin said Smith had not attempted to contact him.
“Our leadership group, they are really upset by it. They give everything they can to our footy club, and they were doing everything they could to give themselves the best crack at the ultimate success. They are disappointed, they are angry,” Goodwin said.
Smith was tested as a result of the AFL’s adherence to the anti-doping code under World Anti-Doping Agency guidelines, which runs separately to the league’s illicit drugs policy.
Smith tested positive in competition. Under WADA rules introduced in 2021, an athlete testing positive to cocaine or marijuana faces a three-month suspension if they can prove “the substance was used out of competition and that its use was unrelated to sporting performance”.
The Demons decided to give the radio interview and provide a letter to members with Pert speaking to The Age on Monday. The interview aired on Tuesday morning, but was conducted on Sunday, before Goodwin flew to a leadership course in New Zealand.
Joel Smith celebrates one of the three goals he kicked against Carlton in this year’s semi-final.Credit: Getty
Smith’s case added to claims the Demons had cultural issues, a claim Goodwin and club chief executive Gary Pert denied.
Pert insisted the problems Smith and star midfielder Clayton Oliver were dealing with were individual cases, coming as Goodwin continues to deal with what he and the club insist are unfounded rumours about his behaviour stemming from a drinking session involving him and players at the Sorrento Hotel in 2020.
Coach denies he’s a drug user
Goodwin denied he had taken illicit drugs.
“Never. I have said this over a three-year period now. It’s pretty ordinary that I am actually sitting in this position having to justify that situation. I know where it started, in terms of a rumour down on the Mornington Peninsula, that was clearly going around. That was, for me, really concerning and bizarre at the time,” he said.
“It then led to an allegation ... that was fully investigated by Gary and the club … there was nothing in it.
“I do not use illicit drugs. I give everything I can to my family and my team in a way that dedicates my life to the footy club. To have this play out over a three-year period … has been really hard. It has taken a toll on myself, my family, everyone. Enough is enough. I don’t use illicit drugs. I never will.”
Goodwin said he understood rumours often swirled in the football industry but, in his case, it had been a sustained attack.
Melbourne great Garry Lyon with coach Simon Goodwin after the Demons’ 2021 premiership. Lyon was one of the interviewers tasked with quizzing Goodwin about the club’s culture on SEN radio this week.Credit: AFL Photos
“It has been widely accused that I have a behavioural and lifestyle issue. Do I enjoy having a beer and a punt and glass of wine with mates? Yeah, of course I do. I am a pretty straightforward type of guy, but I live my life in a way that really is a dedicated approach to my career and my football club and my family.
“The rumours have to stop … It is just not fair. It has gone from a rumour to an allegation to [being perceived as] fact, and it has to stop.”
Pert said the Demons had confronted the speculation.
“I am not comfortable, I am disgusted really, [with] how it is has played out over the last three years,” Pert said.
Melbourne chief executive officer Gary Pert.Credit: Joe Armao
“For three years now, I have been saying this has been fully investigated, every single person that was spreading the rumour at the time, I spoke to. And all of them said the same thing; ‘I am only passing on what I got told, what I had been told by someone else’.
“The one or two people where it started from all said, ‘we haven’t referred to drugs, we were referring to the fact Simon was down at the Mornington Peninsula, at the Sorrento Hotel’.
“Some of our senior players, they were living there at the time They were having a beer and a bet on the races, at times.
“I have made it very clear publicly for three years, and when I said I would investigate it. Glen Bartlett, who was the head of the board, and the rest of the board, signed off on that and accepted that there was no further action required.
“There has been no new information, no new people come forward. Nothing has changed in that period of time.
“One, it has been disgusting to watch it play out. I felt really quite helpless to watch Goody go through this.”
Confronting Oliver’s ‘challenges’
Goodwin did not specifically comment on whether Oliver had a drug issue, and this masthead does not suggest that he had such an issue. Rather, Goodwin said the gun midfielder was addressing long-term “personal challenges”.
Clayton Oliver’s 2023 season was derailed by injury and Melbourne says it is now helping him address some personal challenges.Credit: Getty
“Clayton Oliver has got some personal challenges, that is the best way we can describe it. It is a very complex situation. Clearly, those challenges have been ongoing for multiple years,” Goodwin said.
“This is something that has been ongoing for our footy club, our team, for a number of years.”
Oliver was recently rushed to hospital following a medical episode in which he hit his head as the result of a seizure. He has since been discharged.
While the Demons say they have provided Oliver with as much help as possible, they have also told him his behaviour at the club and how he addresses teammates, coaches and staff must improve.
“We are working incredibly closely with Clayton right now... to deal with his complex, personal issues. But what Clayton needs to be really clear on is that we now have some minimum standards of behaviour that we want him to adhere to. If he can’t come along with our culture, there will be some consequences,” Goodwin said.
“We need to be in a position where we can drive our high-performance culture, and Clayton is a big part of that. He will either come along with that because teams that have great behaviour and great clarity on what is expected ultimately have success. There is no individual above that.”
Pert said the Demons debated whether they had been overly protective of Oliver, and had now adopted more of a tough-love approach.
Oliver is contracted until 2030, but the future of the four-time best-and-fairest winner was a source of speculation through this month’s trade period.
“We didn’t consider trading Clayton Oliver,” Goodwin said. “It came up at a period of time when we were working with Clayton to really buy into the behaviours that we were looking for from him,” Goodwin said.
“That’s why the club didn’t speak for two or three days. There were these rumours going around about a trade, but we all wanted a real commitment from Clayton that he was prepared to do the work to buy into the standards and behaviours and minimum things that we were looking for.
“In the end, he wanted to be a part of where we are going.”
Planning for the worst
Pert admitted the Demons had conducted “scenario planning” in case they needed to replace Goodwin.
“It was a very simple conversation – if we have a problem with a senior leader at the club – and it was raised at a board-level confidentially – to say what if we did have a problem, then we go through the contingencies; that is good governance,” the CEO said.
“What we are dealing with now, we are dealing with isolated behaviour issues where individuals are being held to account.
“I have got to say, I have been in the game now for 40 years, [and] our culture at the club, in the men’s and women’s programs, is the best I have seen in 40 years because of the people, the leadership, the clarity and strength and resilience of that culture.”
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