AFL TV shows recap: Simon Goodwin, the Zak Butters trade, Harley Reid and what you missed on Monday night

The bloodletting of the Demons’ disastrous start continued on Monday night as Simon Goodwin and his side was hit from all directions. Plus, Zak Butters’ future and all the big talking points.

The bloodletting of the Demons’ disastrous 0-3 start continued on Monday night with the flagship football programs on Channel 7 and Nine in lockstep over their assessments of Simon Goodwin’s side.

Is Tom De Koning worth $1.7m-a-season? Not if you ask Kane Cornes. But the Saints, with their mythical warchest, are marching ever-closer according to Caroline Wilson.

Zak Butters could leave Port Adelaide at the end of this season if the price is right, says Sam McClure. And the critique of Harley Reid continued after his derby debacle.

Here is what you missed on Monday night.

Simon Goodwin and the Demons are under pressure. Picture: Michael Klein

Six weeks or ‘he is in trouble’

Leigh Matthews once famously declared, “If it bleeds you can kill it” and so circled the sharks to tear strips off Goodwin and his Demons’ demons.

Six weeks is all Cornes is giving Goodwin to right the ship or “he is in trouble”, he told The Agenda Setters.

Nick Riewoldt believes the reports of Melbourne’s off-season copacetic coming together were greatly exaggerated and it stemmed from letting Christian Petracca and Clayton Oliver walk back into the midfield, which meant pushing teammates out.

"I think Simon Goodwin's probably got six weeks to fix this."

Kane Cornes on Melbourne's woes 👇 pic.twitter.com/8Obpvm4kCB

— 7AFL (@7AFL) March 31, 2025

“You had your best player, Petracca, shopping himself around asking to leave last year and … your other best player, Clayton Oliver, was not living up to AFL standards, yet you allowed them to be victims throughout the off-season. I wonder what ripple effect that has had throughout the rest of the playing group?,” Riewoldt said.

“Teams are coming after Clayton and Christian because they can’t cover the ground like these young, quick teams like Hawthorn and Gold Coast can,” Cornes ruled.

“If you can’t run, you really can’t play.”

What culture?

On Footy Classified, the panel questioned the club’s very public off-season declarations toward recapturing its lost culture.

Bartel said Melbourne had lost its on-field identity of contest and clearance: “Their one-wood is disappearing quickly for them.”

Lloyd said the Demons’ actions spoke louder than words against the Suns on Saturday.

“Words mean nothing,” he said.

“Melbourne refused to run. Melbourne refused to chase.

“That is all garbage. Melbourne has talked and talked for a number of years.”

A new CEO?

As the Herald Sun reported on Monday, Melbourne has had to broaden its search for a new CEO but Riewoldt believes Max Gawn might as well put his hand up given what has been expected of him in recent years.

“This guy leads the team but he leads the club. Talk about they don’t have a CEO – Max is the pseudo everything,” Riewoldt said on The Agenda Setters.

“They are so reliant on him for everything,” added Cornes. “Not only the on-field (stuff), but also off-field. He is the spokesperson for everything.”

Cornes said the Demons have “burnt” Gawn by not bringing in a replacement for Brodie Grundy, leaving the skipper to shoulder the ruck load over the past two years.

War chest confirmed – again

St Kilda’s warchest is real and if you are Carlton, it can very much hurt you.

Wilson reported on The Agenda Setters that St Kilda coach Ross Lyon met with in-demand Blues ruck Tom De Koning before Christmas and that the Saints’ offer was “seven to eight years at $1.7m (per season)”.

That is the same contract length and figure that the Herald Sun reported last December and again last week.

On Footy Classified, Lloyd said if he was at Carlton, he would be willing to trade away Harry McKay or Sam Walsh if it meant keeping “the best ruckman in the game”.

“If it’s all about money, you can’t be losing him,” said Lloyd.

“You can’t replace De Konings. You can replace other players.”

DESTINATION MOORABBIN: ST KILDA’S SWINGS, MISSES AND WHAT’S NEXT

Will Tom De Koning stay at the Blues? Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

Butters to go?

McClure reported on Footy Classified that four Victorian clubs – Essendon, Richmond, Hawthorn and Collingwood – believe they have the draft capital to tempt 2026 free agent Zak Butters home as soon as the end of this year.

McClure told the Footy Classified panel that clubs believed the Port Adelaide star could be available a year earlier than anticipated and that the looming exit of coach Ken Hinkley might play a factor.

“Zak Butters is one of a select few at Port Adelaide who has developed an extremely close bond to Ken Hinkley,” McClure said.

If the Power does not shoot the lights out this season, McClure questioned whether the club would consider fielding offers for Butters to cash-in before potentially losing him for less at the end of 2026.

Nothing personal, Harley

Cornes maintained his criticism of Harley Reid’s on-field antics were more than valid following his fiery derby clash with Caleb Serong and that sentiment was echoed by Lloyd on the rival network.

For Fox Footy on Sunday, Adam Simpson revealed he had spoken to Reid as his coach last year about such incidents but “it’s just going to take a lot to break it. It’s in him”.

The coach’s comments were a damning indictment of Reid in the eyes of both desks.

“Nothing about the criticism has been personal, it has been about that stuff that he must remove from his game and his former coach agrees,” said Cornes.

AFL legend Leigh Matthews had a slightly different take, urging the Eagles to embrace Reid’s flaws.

“If you go back 12 months he was in fantastic form, he (was) an 18-year-old man child making the senior players look like little kids really,” Matthews said on Fox Footy.

“Sometimes I wonder when if you play too well, too early it’s not great for you long-term. Because all of a sudden he’s in a bad spot.

“He looks like he’s playing a bit kind of angry and a little bit over aggressive.”

Matthews said the Eagles should be “working with the kid” and “not yelling at him”.

“You don’t tell enforcers what to do because they will put their back up. You’ve got to work with them and ask for their help,” he said.

“Working with Harley, because (someone should be saying), ‘Harley, this is not helping your playing form’. It shouldn’t be that complicated to be honest that he’s just allowing a naturally aggressive attitude to overflow a bit too much.

It’s serious

Riewoldt and Cornes spoke of their battles with performance anxiety during their football careers in light of Harry McKay’s absence from Carlton’s AFL side.

Riewoldt was of the belief McKay’s big contract would have played at least some part in his anxiety struggles.

That led Cornes to call for the AFL to step in and put a limit on the length of player contracts to five years to “protect the club and their finances”.

Originally published as AFL TV shows recap: Simon Goodwin, the Zak Butters trade, Harley Reid and what you missed on Monday night