AFL news 2025: Melbourne face hefty financial bill if they part ways with coach Simon Goodwin

Simon Goodwin is under the pump. But a payout clause in the Melbourne coach’s contract gives him a leg up. Jay Clark has the details.

Melbourne would face a hefty financial bill if it parted ways with coach Simon Goodwin who has a full payout clause until the end of next season.

Goodwin has another full year to run on his deal and a clause in his contract which means he would receive the full amount of his 2025-26 wage if he was sacked.

It means the club would have to pay the 2021 premiership coach in the vicinity of $1.5 million if they terminated his contract midway through this season amid searing public pressure on his position.

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The cost of sacking Simon Goodwin is high. Picture: Getty Images

That full amount would have to be included in the club’s soft cap over the next two years which would incur extra luxury tax charges if it tipped the club over the $7.7 million limit.

Clubs pay 75 per cent of every dollar over the limit in tax to help keep club spending in check, although clubs are campaigning heavily to significantly increase the soft cap amount.

The contract clause revelation comes amid concerning crowd numbers and membership rates for Melbourne after a disastrous 0-5 start to the season.

But a decision to sack Goodwin would take a full 180 degree turn from the Melbourne board, with president Brad Green lauding the senior coach for his character and coaching qualities as recently as February.

“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,” Green told the Herald Sun.

The Demons are also looking to appoint a new chief executive in the next fortnight and will hand over the presidency from Green to former Melbourne Cricket Club chairman Steven Smith at season’s end.

Goodwin, 48, clinched his latest two-year contract extension in late 2023, tying him to the club until the end of 2026 amid the club’s ugly board legal fight with former president Glen Bartlett and questions about the Demons’ culture.

As part of the deal, Goodwin’s management at TGI/TLA ensured he had full financial security amid several major off-field storms.

A similar coach contract situation at West Coast saw the Eagles defer a decision on former coach Adam Simpson from midway through a terrible 2023 until 16 rounds into 2024.

But former St Kilda coach Brett Ratten and Gold Coast boss Stuart Dew were not as fortunate as the pair only received six-month payouts when they were tipped out in 2023.

Goodwin is vowing to dig in to help save Melbourne’s season in the belief he has the skills and capability to steer the club through a terrible start to the 2025 campaign.

Green said in February he had had not “one iota” of conversation at board level about Goodwin’s situation at the club.

Goodwin’s Dees sit at 1-5. Picture: Getty Images

Green said Goodwin deserved more respect from the football community for steering the club to a drought-breaking premiership in 2021.

“It annoys me and frustrates me that he doesn’t get the respect and kudos he deserves,” Green told the Herald Sun in the preseason.

“It shits me, actually, that this industry bags Simon Goodwin. He is the only living Melbourne premiership coach and he gets battered and bruised by everyone in this industry.

“He will be a legend of our club. I don’t think he feels the love.

“We need to see more of the Simon Goodwin I see. But he probably didn’t want to go out there and show himself (in recent years) and get burnt.”