It is almost a year since Melbourne sacked Simon Goodwin, the club’s first premiership coach in 57 years, with three rounds remaining in the 2025 season.
Coach sackings are never pretty but even allowing for the fact that both parties have emerged in greener pastures the Demons’ treatment of Goodwin looks particularly brutal and their handling of the surprise decision shambolic in terms of its timing.
The week before he was sacked, Goodwin emerged from a club meeting that followed Melbourne’s disastrous loss to St Kilda (“Bloody Nasiah!” he would say seven days later) saying he felt fully supported by the club’s powerbrokers who had endorsed the direction he wanted to take the club.
One week later interim president Brad Green delivered the fateful news flanked by the club’s acting CEO David Chippindall, football boss Alan Richardson and director Angela Williams. Of that quartet, only Williams still holds the same role she did 12 months ago.
Chippindall has resignedfrom the club. His replacement Paul Guerra was sacked in May and is embroiled in a legal dispute with the club. Richardson, who is out of contract at the end of 2026, was replaced over the summer in his role by Ned Guy. Steven Smith, who would soon take over as president and who backed the decision, was travelling in Europe.
Goodwin was sacked immediately after Melbourne thrashed West Coast by 77 points. Close observers expected Goodwin’s future would come under scrutiny at the end of the season. But the board moved early, believing Carlton were about to sack Michael Voss, and Melbourne wanted to get the jump on the Blues. Instead, Carlton backed Voss to coach into 2026, and they parted ways in May.
Frankly, it was disrespectful handling of the club’s first premiership coach in six decades who had taken the club back into finals for the first time in 12 years. It is true that Melbourne paid Goodwin the final year of his contract (around $1 million), but surely he deserved better than the Monday night early August sitting room axe.
Strong speculation suggested Goodwin, like Ken Hinkley and Adam Simpson previously, would take a media role this year, but Goodwin ultimately wanted to stay in the game and he found himself in demand across clubland. Once it emerged that his personal circumstances could take him to Sydney where his wife Kristine Brooks holds a senior corporate role, both the Giants and the Swans vied for his services.
He chose Sydney and the directorship of coaching and performance under Dean Cox, whose rookie 2025 season had been hampered by an undermanned football department and a playing list still shell-shocked from the 2024 grand final and relatively bereft of obvious successors to captain Callum Mills.
Goodwin has worked closely on the Swans’ ball movement and oversees the offensive side of Cox’s game plan. The club has lauded his work with emerging leaders Chad Warner, Nick Blakey, Tom McCartin and Angus Sheldrick.
Perhaps Goodwin’s tough years at Melbourne, accompanied by the club’s legal problems and the ensuing allegations about a culture of drug taking among the players, caused too much reputational damage, hurting his senior coaching prospects in the short term. Not to mention the seemingly transformative impact of Steven King.
But it seems extraordinary that his name has not been mentioned alongside Longmire, Buckley, Simpson and Hinkley given the vacant senior roles. Although Essendon were keen to interview Goodwin for the senior coaching role, he chose to remain in his current role at the Swans for the foreseeable future.
He revealed as much in a recent interview, also stating he wanted to coach again at the senior level. Goodwin’s future looms as fascinating given the choice he has made. It came about due to a combination of his personal situation and a desire to remain involved in the game at the coalface – as opposed to Simpson and Hinkley, whose strong media performances seemingly proved a bonus for the Tasmania Devils.
Cox and football boss Leon Cameron have both spoken about the positive impact Goodwin has made on the Swans. Even with his lean final two seasons, he still left with a 54 per cent winning record. But in-season sackings incur reputational damage. The last coach to take Melbourne to the finals before Goodwin, Neale Daniher, was also sacked before the end of his final season.
Green proposed an amicable separation to be announced immediately and gave Goodwin the option of coaching for the final three games. There is a view from Goodwin supporters that it may have been better for his brand not to frame the decision as a sacking, but the coach chose the truth as the preferable option.
He sat alongside Green the following day and said he respected the board’s decision. “I was disappointed. There’s no doubt about that, but I certainly respect the board’s decision. But I’m disappointed because I think we’re a hell of a lot closer to turning our club and team into a contender than people think.”
As it turns out, Goodwin was correct. Clearly significant credit goes to his successor King, whose fresh voice, less structured approach and more offensive game plan sees the club headed back into finals or at the very least a wildcard spot.
But it’s also true that Goodwin left Melbourne in relatively good shape. The blame for Richmond’s current plight cannot be shouldered by Damien Hardwick – who might have left abruptly and with questionable timing but did steer the club to three premierships – nor should Simpson wear responsibility for West Coast’s struggles since 2018. However, no one could accuse Goodwin of a scorched earth departure.
King, although nothing like Goodwin before him, has already navigated a series of off-field land mines in his short senior coaching career. However, he has done so with the strong support of a football-oriented new president, a new head of football and a list free of the varying cultural baggage presented by Clayton Oliver, Steven May and Christian Petracca.
It is true that King’s style seems to have led to a revolutionary performance shift among many young to medium-term players, but Melbourne bosses agree Goodwin deserves credit for his role in returning to the draft, the on-the-run rebuilding he pushed with list manager Tim Lamb, and the emergence of key players with whom he persisted, from Jacob van Rooyen to Daniel Turner.
Just as Simpson’s West Coast took several years too long to return to the draft, Goodwin’s Melbourne clearly should have traded Oliver one year earlier – not that Green’s board would necessarily have sanctioned it – and also acted at least one year sooner in seeking a trade for May when his disruptions became increasingly difficult to handle.
Despite Melbourne’s shoddy handling of its only living premiership coach, the decision to change mentors was correct. The Demons and Goodwin had worn each other out. The Melbourne players needed a new voice and Goodwin – who turns 50 on Boxing Day – needed a different club.
But almost 12 months since that die was cast, Goodwin’s deliberate removal from the public eye and onto Dean Cox’s coaches’ bench and the Sydney system – and the Demons’ impressive season which Goodwin predicted – indicate that his coaching ambition remains alive and kicking.
Keep up to date with the best AFL coverage in the country. Sign up for the Real Footy newsletter.
Caroline Wilson is a Walkley award-winning columnist and former chief football writer for The Age.Connect via email.
