“Making sure they knew I was totally invested in them was really important.”
That was Simon Goodwin late in the 2016 season, discussing Melbourne’s playing group as he reflected on his two years as Paul Roos’ understudy while preparing to take on the coaching role proper.
For good and for bad, it’s a quote that sits comfortably on his coaching epitaph.
For all the criticisms levelled at him, whether it be from the Herald Sun, ex-Presidents or red and blue fans on social media, you could never accuse him of not being invested in his players.
It paid off in the ultimate way in 2021 and it will make him a legendary figure at Melbourne forever.
Revisionist history says the Demons were an unstoppable force that year, and should have been a sit and steer ride to the next three premierships.
The reality is they’d spent two years out of the final eight, and up until then had been seen as a talented, but flawed, mentally fragile and occasionally boneheaded group of players.
It was Goodwin’s investment and belief that moulded that group into playing that magical season.
Sadly for him, the footballing nirvana of the 2021 finals set expectations that were not consistent with what the team had been for most of the year. The forward line never functioned like it did September 2021 before, and nor has it since.
That those initial flaws, fragility and brain explosions have reared their heads since is not a complete shock. Goodwin could bind them on the upswing, but he couldn’t change them for the refresh.
That’s not a knock.
A more analytical and less emotional coach may have been able to adapt the contest and defence game before the forward line went into gridlock. They also may never have got to first base without the galvanising relationships Goodwin was so good at.
The difference is we can never truly know the role of those relationships, but every week we watched balls pumped into the forward line without reward.
2022 and 2023 were not frittered away as some would have you believe. Those years’ premiers, Geelong and Collingwood, did not make the finals the year after their triumphs – the Dees, meanwhile finished second backing up their flag, before collapsing in September. Twice.
2023’s forward line faltering losses were a coaching failure, but they weren’t helped by an already middling front half disintegrating as the season climaxed – Ben Brown was shot and there were season ending injuries to Jake Melksham and Harrison Petty in the run home.
A patched-up Tom McDonald and Bayley Fritsch were thrown back into the team having played one game between them in the last eight home and away rounds. (Let’s not even mention the Angus Brayshaw sliding doors).
The investment that fired the belief of 2021 in some ways contributed to those final hurdles of 2023, and the swift decline in 2024 and 2025. The landmines exploding off the field made it all the more complex.
That total investment, commendable as it was for many reasons, meant belief in players and systems went on too long.
It’s worth noting the same thing was said of Neale Daniher in 2007 when he was eventually sacked. In a human sense, Goodwin will have the same lasting connection with his players decades on like Daniher does, with an added premiership cup to sip from.
But that doesn’t buy you wins to keep your job today.
By mid-2024 the era was done, amid Christian Petracca’s grisly King’s Birthday injury and subsequent fallout. When gears were changed that season, it completely fell apart.
The 2025 season has been muddled to say the least. Five club debutants in Round 1 preceded five losses to start the season. Since then, there has been a strange honour, a Goodwin-era hallmark, that the Demons have been, in the main, competitive in every game since.
And that might be the devil in the detail that eventually got him.
An away win against Brisbane, a one-point loss to Collingwood and a narrow loss after a five-goal away lead against Adelaide show this team is more capable than the seven-win team it currently is on the ladder
Whether they are two wins or seven better than that will be the question for those contemplating the job.
Ironically, last week’s 83-point defeat of West Coast showed some change (Caleb Windsor in the middle the most obvious), yet it was too late.
Goodwin showed humour in a classy performance at his press conference, cursing Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera’s killer blow to his career in the quarter from hell that sealed his fate.
His investment and belief in his players never publicly wavered. But when those same players couldn’t complete the simple task of converting a 46-point three quarter time lead into a trouble-free win, it showed they have lost belief in themselves.
When that happens, contracts or appropriate farewells do not matter.
Time was up for the Goodwin investment, on both sides of the equation.
Shannon Gillhttps://https://ift.tt/osQ05jh for the players was Goodwin’s biggest strength as coach. By the end, it was his undoing
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