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MELBOURNE AFL Senior Coach Simon Goodwin will remain at the helm until at least the end of 2026, having agreed to a two-year contract extension with the club. Goodwin, who was already locked in until the end of the 2024 season, put pen to paper on the new deal this week, which will take him through to a decade in the top position.

Good news I would hope that the contract addresses the salary cut he took last time which was a quite impressive act

Is he really the right guy.........?

He's taken a few steps forward this year having to reshape the forward line several times over and rejig the mids. He has grown in the job. This is good news.

Great news. No other coach in the league has gotten their club 3 top 4 finishes and a flag (maybe 2?!) the last 3 seasons. Results speak for themselves.

Michael Warner has just started crying.

The perfect way to start a 4-game winning streak, I say.

Fantastic news. He's doing a great job.

A quick check tells me that Goodwin has coached the 5th most games for Melbourne with 134. He'll move to 4th some time in 2025. He's currently the 4th most successful in terms of games won. Here's the top 5 for games: Norm Smith - 310 with a win rate of 64.35% Checker Hughes - 258 (61.24%) Neale Daniher - 223 (48.65%) John Northey - 167 (54.19) Simon Goodwin - 134 (57.46%) The leader for games won is Albert Chadwick who coached 58 games with a win rate of 73.28%. This information puts Goodwin in excellent company. All stats courtesy of Wikipedia.

Great news. So this is what supporting a successful, well managed club feels like. I kind of like it.

Agreed. Has done exactly what he and Roos set out to do when they respectively took up the helm and set us on the path to where we are now - built a list, culture and game style that means we are compeditive, have a recognisable game style/brand of football that stacks up in finals and sets us up to go deep into September, with an oppertunity to play off in premerships over the foreseeable future. Fantastic to have this extension to bring stability over the next few years that could be some of the greatest for the MFC in the modern/AFL era.

Great to see. Love to see a few more premiership's lead by this man.

I think BBB will retire at the end of this season. He’s knee issues are ongoing and he’s unlikely to be able to perform at the level required. He’s a premiership player and would be always remembered for his goals from the 2021 GF🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆

Awesome news! This will [censored] off the former President even more 😁

I would prefer we blood another midfielder with Jordan’s minutes. I don’t see anything elite in his game.

Sorry to say that I won’t be able to provide any analysis this weekend because I’ll be on a flight to Bali . Yes I know it’s very inconsiderate of me, and obviously it’s music to the ears of many, but now is the opportunity for any budding 3 worder trainees to give it a go and open up a whole new career path.. for a week. And in the immortal 3 words of Arnie Shwarzenegger… I’ll be back

There is zero chance that we had an “in-principal” deal with WCE. It is one of the dumbest things I’ve heard, I have no idea how people still get sucked in by your garbage. The part about Lyon being “involved at a personal level” did give me a laugh though, so points there.

There is no way we acquire these players

Adelaide 1997 Simon Goodwin was playing that day. Omen?

Remember an interview with Burgo in 2021 (maybe 2020), where he said Kozzie was the most exceptional combination of speed and endurance he’d seen over all his elite sport gigs.

joeboy- showing limited commitment

no one beats that team under the roof at Marvel

I judge 3 years in the top 4 and a flag. I'm 45 easily our best coach in my lifetime

I'll give two related reasons. Firstly, it's a mark of respect which he's earned. Secondly, and more practically, we run the risk of losing him to another club who might offer him better terms (dollars or length of contract) if we treat him poorly.

Great interview, Andy! Thank you for asking the questions Demonlanders put forward, especially the one about whether he’ll play on next year; great question and even greater answer… a resounding YES! 🥳 Jake speaks so well and answered your questions in detail. He’s always so humble, I just love him. I also love Nibbla and was very happy to hear Jake explain Nibbla’s role. This is something the folks who unfairly malign Nibs need to hear. Binman has explained it beautifully on several occasions but I guess it falls on deaf ears. Anyways, it’s awesome to hear Jake so positive and confident. He’s worked so hard for so long. He deserves the plaudits and hopefully he’ll enjoy the ultimate success. ❤️💙

The Doggie implosion has blown-up an in-principal deal with WCE for us to get Reid. Lyon has been involved at a personal level. The final decision whether to exercise the deal, by both WCE and MFC had yet to be made. Plenty of water still to go under the bridge between now and November. Nevertheless, we have been actively pursuing Reid as an option on how to spend our draft bonanza. It would seem we are still keen to have this option with NM, but considering everything our chances are now weak.

Finished the interview about 45 mins ago. It should be up within the next hour or so.

Squiggle has us winning the flag: https://live.squiggle.com.au/# - see Forecast tab I think we will if we beat Collingwood in the QF, if not it's going to hard.

72% winning rate in the past 3 years

I have maybe seen Georgiadis in 2 games so have never really noticed him if I'm honest, but if this is anything to go by, he's doing pretty well after 49 games? After 49 games the following had: Gunstan - 86 goals Hipwood - 73 goals Jamie Elliot - 66 goals Georgiadis - 65 goals Jack Reiwoldt - 62 goals Charlie Curnow - 60 goals Fritsch - 41 goals Only 21 years old, effectively same amount of goals as Jamie Elliot, more goals than Reiwoldt, Curnow and Fritsch at the same time. Seems to be more upsides than down?

I think 23rd August 2023 would be a suitable date.

Yes, 3 consecutive top 4 H&A seasons hasn’t been achieved by us for 60 years (and I’ll forever be grateful for seeing us win the flag), but with this list we simply must salute again.

I agree completely. He clearly has the trust and confidence of the players and all the staff. He is a cool hand at the tiller. Our structures in defence are the envy of the league., He has learnt how to pace the season so we are not wrecked by the end of the home and away. Great news.

Just listened to the Melk interview. He is such a pleasure to listen to. He gives thoughtful answers and does try to answer the questions rather than just reach for a cliche. And I gave him points for not laughing when Andy posed a massively enthusiastic six-part question - or was it seven? - about that game-winning mark and goal. I might add I am thrilled that Melk is proving to be so valuable this year. I remember some deflating moments in our two 2022 finals when he had chances to score but his one wood - accurate kicking - seemed to desert him. He gets 10 out of 10 from me for persistence and for bouncing back strongly this year.

Not supposed to get out, but heard from a credible source that Watson is keen on the prospect of joining the Dees.

This is going to be the most relaxed I’ve been in ages watching us play.

i'm going to go slightly against this... whoever we pick with our first pick this year i expect to be part of our starting side we've not had the opportunity to inject high-end talent since dog, koz, and rivers at the end of 2019 - all were regulars in 2020 and premiership players the year after be it duursma, mckercher, sanders, watson, or another, i'm expecting we'll be bringing in a 'ready-made' player at the pointy end of this year's draft who by natural talent will become a part of the side immediately

Reckon we exchange for their future first. Fire up the deathride again

That rule only applies where the club in question is receiving special assistance from the AFL.

Learnings

Great news, now go get us #14 Simon!

I don't know the details. Only that broad agreement had been made. WCE to pick up most of our early draft picks in return. How much? Players involved? I have no idea.

If this game ends up a dead rubber for us as it is likely to then surely, surely, we rest Gawn and bring Grundy in as first ruck. The entire idea of recruiting Grundy was to ensure Gawn came into finals 100% fit and fresh. When Gawn in 100% he is worth 3 players. He was banged up in the finals last year and was a shadow of himself. Gawn was badly beaten last weekend, he looked tired. He is our most important player and captain. There is simply no point in playing him in the wet in Sydney in a dead rubber. Equally importantly putting Grundy in will give him an opportunity to connect him to our mids should Gawn go down and Grundy is required in finals. Gives us some real insurance. It also gives Grundy an opportunity to show his trade value to our benefit. I just don't see any downside, only risk of injury to Gawn. Two weeks break to Gawn (like 2021) will have him in absolute top fitness for finals. Don't forget how incredible Gawn was for us in those finals, particularly v Geelong. Rest Gawn!

I'm in this boat. Looking at some of our direct competitors, Port have Butters, Rozee and JHF as a young powerful midfield combination that will challenge for years, Brisbane have had their midfield supercharged by the arrival of one Ashcroft with another on the way (Fletcher looks more than handy too) and Collingwood have had their entire trajectory changed when Nick Daicos walked through the door. I don't think it's unrealistic to think that a player of that calibre and capacity to impact early can be found in the first 5 picks of this draft.

You missed the obvious one and that is the AFL’s engineering of outcomes by changing their rules, often in midstream. I would be very interested to see what the AFL does with North Melbourne’s ploy to have Tasmanian top 10 draft prospect Ryley Sanders registered as a Next Generation Academy player and then be pre-listed or eligible for drafting by North in contradiction to the NGA rules that apply to the non Northern States. The AFL has yet to agree to the idea but if it had integrity, consistency and fairness as heart then it should have already come out and ruled out this farcical sham as yet another unnecessary compromising of its own rules. Any organization with an ounce of decency would laugh such an idea out of court.

Another one bites the dust.