Not for the first time in his decorated football career, life was threatening to close in on Simon Goodwin. As Melbourne’s off-season horrors rolled into the 2024 football year with a fresh set of allegations linking the Demons with illicit drugs, the coach moved to shield his family and protect himself and his reputation.
Goodwin placed defamation lawyer Rebekah Giles on a retainer. It was a different sort of delegating of responsibility than the one he finally embraced towards the end of the club’s annus horribilis in 2019, but Goodwin hopes it will achieve a similar result.
Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin.Credit: Paul Jeffers
“You get to the point when enough is enough,” said Goodwin. “I love my job, I love my family and I love coming to work every day and I’m not going to let articles which are false and essentially relating to a board dispute affect that.
“I’m not going to disappear down a hole because I love this job too much and I love this life too much. But that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been easy. There have been times when it has been terrible. It [Goodwin’s brand] has taken a hammering.
“It’s been tough on me, but it’s been tougher on my parents and my children and my brothers.”
The damage to 2021 premiership coach Goodwin’s reputation began with a report of his alleged inappropriate behaviour dating back to before the club’s premiership. This was the start of a plethora of allegations relating to Goodwin, some players and the club’s culture.
Commentary intensified at the end of last season after Joel Smith tested positive to a banned substance on match-day and the club finally lost patience with its troubled star midfielder Clayton Oliver, suspending him from pre-season training and laying down the law in an ultimatum led by AFL and club bosses and the game’s most senior mental health official.
The saga was punctuated by Goodwin being forced to repeatedly deny allegations about his personal life including allegations of illicit drug use. It also took its toll on his players. Club captain Max Gawn has spoken often and with disgust at what his coach has endured.
“They [the players] know they [the allegations] are wrong, for a start,” said Goodwin. “That’s what hurts the most. They know how much I care about the club. The situation we’ve gone through as a club has been a board issue and it’s mischievous and it’s been tough on everyone.”
Depending on your view, Goodwin, who was going through a marriage break-up during 2020, needed to be pulled into line – something his CEO, Gary Pert, has repeatedly denied – or he has been a pawn in a much bigger game, collateral damage in the ongoing dispute between former Melbourne president Glen Bartlett and the board. Now Giles oversees every reference to Goodwin and his part of that saga.
Arm in arm: Demons coach Simon Goodwin, skipper Max Gawn and the Demons, who have had a difficult season.Credit: AFL Photos / Getty Images
But outsourcing has never been Goodwin’s strong suit. He said he had learned a lot about leadership from Gawn, whom he describes as “leading by bringing people together. He leads by bringing enjoyment and fun to the contest even though he knows when to bring a harder edge. Hopefully, he’s learned some things from me too.”
He added: “If you had told me when I came to Melbourne that he would be our captain I would have been shocked.”
Goodwin’s assessment of the past turmoil at Melbourne is at odds with the more publicised version of a poor culture.
But it was Goodwin’s own anxiety and his belief he could handle everything that came his way, that led in part to his role in the team’s 2019 on-field collapse to 17th after reaching the preliminary final the previous year.
The fault was not his alone, but Goodwin says now that many things at the edges of his life at that time began to fray. His marriage to childhood sweetheart and mother of his three children, Maggie, was breaking up and, at the club, Pert’s review had placed Alan Richardson in charge of football, a number of assistant coaches were moved on, and among others, Mark Williams joined the club.
“There was stress, there was pressure, there was anxiety,” he said, “and a coach not dealing with it too well. It was a big instigator for change at that time.”
Goodwin turned to a number of external mentors, notably big-wave surfer Mark Visser, along with his old coach Neil Craig, in a bid to deal with the pressure.
“The stress and the pressure and the virulent nature of our industry are going to emerge from time to time, whatever you do,” he said. “So you ask yourself do you really want to be a part of it or do you develop a skill set to be able to deal with that.
“I realised the pressure wasn’t going to go away and because I love the game so much, and I love coaching and what we have been able to build here, I had to make some changes.
“Before that it was me thinking, ‘I’ll be right, I’ll be right’, and ego takes over and your life balance outside the game goes. In the first three years I was like a dog with a bone. Things at the edges began to fray.”
Goodwin has agreed to an interview in the days that followed Melbourne’s disastrous 92-point loss to Fremantle, a defeat that placed the Demons 10th on the ladder at the midway point of the season.
Five days before the King’s Birthday clash with Collingwood the coach emerges from a lengthy match committee meeting at Casey, where team selection and the inevitable tough calls were not resolved, with Goodwin and his crew agreeing to “sleep on it” before meeting again 24 hours later.
He said he had decided to grant this relatively lengthy and public conversation “irrespective of the result”.
“My philosophy has been to lean into vulnerability and not walk away from it,” he said.
“One thing I’ve loved about our team is that we’ve always shown up. We’ve always been competitive and we’ve always given everything and for some reason that didn’t happen last week.
“The weekend was nowhere near what we stand for, but that doesn’t mean what is good about us is suddenly gone. It is a different group this year, but we don’t want to lose what we stand for.
“In terms of criticism about our culture ... I get it. Culture is something that never finishes, you’re always working on it.” Goodwin pauses and adds with half a smile: “And I guess the next question’s about Clayton? When you have incidents like his, those questions about our culture are going to come up.”
Goodwin said he never threatened Oliver with trading him, but did present the troubled player – whose behavioural problems and off-field issues he said the club had been trying to fix for eight years – with an ultimatum.
“We headed down the path that something’s got to change, and the time is now,” said Goodwin. “If he hadn’t played along with the accountability piece he wouldn’t be here. In the end our players – our leaders – instigated some genuine, prolonged change. But you can’t get that change if the person doesn’t lean in.
“You want to see the best in people and you want them to live great lives and he [Oliver] has so transformed the way he’s living. I think one of the proudest things right now is to transform the way someone is living. Is it finished? No, it’s never finished.
“But players become like your sons, and you go through the highs and lows with them on the field and off the field and if it was my own son Eddie I’d feel this way.”
When asked directly whether Melbourne had an illicit drugs problem, Goodwin said no. “We’ve had issues in the past. Clubs have issues, and we are no different, but we do not have a problem.”
On Smith, whom Goodwin had championed as a player, he said: “I was certainly very disappointed, as anyone in the position of coach would be. I’ve spoken to Joel and he’s apologised. He knows he put everyone in a really difficult situation and he’s remorseful.”
Smith was charged by Sport Integrity Australia with having cocaine in his system on game day against Hawthorn as the club approached finals last year, and subsequently faced further charges from SIA that he had allegedly engaged in trafficking (as defined under SIA rules, he has not been charged with any crime).
Former Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley is one of the few present and recent past AFL coaches with whom Goodwin says he has forged a relationship. He also speaks occasionally with Sydney coach John Longmire and has recently moved to check in with his former assistant, Richmond coach Adem Yze.
Buckley and Goodwin had both achieved some success at a time when both their marriages were breaking up, and the challenges presented by life and coaching at the highest level were shared by the two men on the occasional walk around the Tan.
Buckley commented several days ago that not all Melbourne’s players appeared fully fit – a comment that was juxtaposed on Nine’s Footy Classified alongside a shot of a jumper-less Oliver in the Traeger Park rooms on Sunday.
“I’m sure even Bucks, with his incredible pecks, had a 92-point loss,” said the coach, grinning. “He [Oliver] is working his way back to his best footy. He missed a big chunk of the pre-season and he had the hand issue and anyone who’s missed that amount of pre-season is going to struggle at times.
“I don’t think he’s far away from playing his best footy and he’s in the best place we’ve ever seen.”
The loss to Fremantle was numerically the club’s worst since Paul Roos’ last game as coach in August 2016 and prompted Roos to comment on the ABC: “They are really a talent-based team at the moment. That is the biggest thing that would be concerning Simon, that whatever he is telling them to do they are not listening.”
Goodwin said he was not aware of the comment. His response is brief and as pointed as it is pragmatic. Although Roos and Goodwin worked for two years as part of a coaching succession plan, the two were not close and according to Goodwin, have only spoken twice in almost eight years since Roos left.
“We had a working relationship,” said a blunt Goodwin. “When you perform like that you open yourself up to criticism, and it ranges from everything from communication to work rate to culture.”
Former Melbourne coach Paul Roos (left) with Simon Goodwin, who was his senior assistant.Credit: AFL Photos / Getty Images
Goodwin has been forced – at least temporarily – to cut another favourite son, Angus Brayshaw, adrift from the club.
The plan was for Brayshaw, after his shock enforced retirement, to remain at Melbourne in a development role, but any hope that Brayshaw could find some fulfilment off the field so soon was dashed after one week at the start of the season working on the interchange bench.
Brayshaw found it too upsetting being so close to the action and has chosen to explore other avenues away from football, including, at least this year, travel.
“We’ve given him the ultimate space,” said Goodwin. “It was a big shock to get that news. The trauma for him made being around the club and not being able to play his usual role too difficult.
“It didn’t quite pan out the way we had hoped so we’ve given him big space. I’m sad for Angus and we miss him. We miss his character, we miss his form and we miss his personality.”
Denying that the team let the Brayshaw incident with Collingwood’s Brayden Maynard distract it in the lead-up to last year’s semi-final against Carlton, Goodwin said: “We were angry, but we moved on. I don’t think we as a team dwelt on it and we got beaten by a better team on the night and some bad luck.
“The experience left us asking: ‘How do we perform better in finals?’”
Goodwin’s comments about Brodie Grundy coming to a club that valued him backfired but now that the former Collingwood ruckman has forged a new football career in Sydney, the Demons coach denies the club made a mistake in recruiting him.
“I wouldn’t say it was a mistake, I would say it hasn’t worked,” he said. “I’m proud of our football club for giving something a go and I’m proud we were brave enough to put our hands up and say it didn’t work and I’m proud of the way Brodie handled it.
“It can’t have been easy for him. He’s a proud player and it can’t have been easy playing in the VFL. Our communication with him was always open and honest and we always said to him we will do the best thing for you at the end of the year. And we stuck to our word.
“I’m so happy how it’s worked out for him in Sydney and Max is having a brilliant year. And Max was brilliant in his vulnerability. He was the premier ruckman in the competition and he was open to bringing someone in to share that role. We just got to the point where it wasn’t working for anyone and something had to give.”
Goodwin does not rule out anything in the Demons’ quest to improve their forward structure. He pointed to injuries interrupting efforts to give Harrison Petty and Jacob van Rooyen more game time together and the younger pair Daniel Turner and Matthew Jefferson for the future.
What a shocker: Max Gawn leads his beleaguered team off the field after the lamentable loss to Fremantle.Credit: AFL Photos / Getty Images
“Though if Charlie Curnow is available, we’d be very happy to take him,” he said laughing. “You rarely find those players because clubs rarely trade them, but we’ll look at all options – the draft, free agency, trade ... we’re in the win window.”
Goodwin proposed to his partner of three years, Kristine Brooks, last December. The Australian boss of the financial group Milford, Brooks lives with her children in Sydney – where father-of-three Goodwin will spend a brief break during the Demons’ bye – and commute when their living arrangements allow.
The pair will marry on an island off Bali in early January. “Kristine’s been a big support to me. She’s been fantastic. My children have been fantastic and Perty’s been fantastic.”
Goodwin offers a more positive assessment of Melbourne’s progression since the 2021 flag, which is at odds with the prevailing view that the Demons team that achieved the club’s first premiership since 1964 should have won at least another flag by now.
Under him, from 2017 the improvement continued on a linear trajectory until the disastrous 2019 season, where the coach embarked on the aforementioned and unofficial course of self-improvement, against a backdrop of the Pert review that led to structural change across the football department.
“That was a big instigator of change here and looking back, 2020 was a strong year for us in a tough year of COVID,” he said.
Melbourne ultimately just missed the finals after losing successive games in Cairns. “We had to win the last two to give ourselves a chance and we did that,” said Goodwin.
“We just missed out, but that was the moment we realised: ‘Wow – we have a team that is capable of some really serious footy.’ And since then we’ve produced every year to give ourselves a chance ...
Goodwin at Melbourne training in Alice Springs recently.Credit: AFL Photos / Getty Images
“What we produced last weekend, we haven’t seen that for five years, but it brings things to the surface and adds a sharpness to the situation. And we’ve certainly got an expectation to play finals.”
Before Goodwin lost Brayshaw and Smith under circumstances beyond his control, the club had made a conscious decision to promote van Rooyen, Taj Woewodin and Blake Howes. Luke Dunstan and Michael Hibberd retired, James Jordon headed to Sydney and James Harmes to the Western Bulldogs.
“It’s a different group,” said Goodwin, “but we made a conscious decision to play those boys.
“Things in our game we’ve tried to change – I’m not going to say what – and it’s not working. When you try to make change you run the risk of losing your identity and right now, we haven’t got a clear identity ...
“Getting there doesn’t guarantee success and you’ve got to keep producing – Geelong has done it for the best part of 12 years for two premierships. Yes, we haven’t got it right, but we’ve been there and I’m proud of that.
“I’m proud we’ve been in that position and we’re not going anywhere.”
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