Simon Goodwin

Not to be confused with Simon Godwin.

Simon Goodwin
Goodwin as Melbourne coach in April 2018
Personal information
Full name Simon Goodwin
Nickname(s) Goody
Date of birth (1976-12-26) 26 December 1976
Place of birth Adelaide, South Australia
Original team(s) South Adelaide (SANFL)
Draft No. 18, 1996 pre-season draft
Height 185 cm (6 ft 1 in)
Weight 86 kg (190 lb)
Position(s) Midfielder
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
1997–2010 Adelaide 275 (162)
Coaching career3
Years Club Games (W–L–D)
2013 Essendon 1 (0–1–0)
2017–2025 Melbourne 202 (111–90–1)
Total 203 (111–91–1)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 2010.
3 Coaching statistics correct as of 2025.
Career highlights

Playing

Coaching

Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Simon Goodwin (born 26 December 1976) is a retired Australian rules football player and coach, who played 275 games for the Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He went on to become the interim senior coach of the Essendon Football Club in 2013 and the senior coach of the Melbourne Football Club between 2017 and 2025, helping lead the club to its first premiership in 57 years in 2021.

Throughout his playing career, Goodwin was a high-achieving midfielder who earnt multiple All-Australian selections and best and fairests. He captained the club for three seasons before retiring at the end of the 2010 season. He won two premierships with the Crows in 1997 and 1998. As coach of Melbourne, Goodwin led the Demons back into the finals in 2018, before coaching the side to premiership success three years later.[1] His tenure as coach ended in August 2025, three weeks out from the end of the season, following successive years in which the club failed to initially win and later qualify for finals.[2]

Goodwin was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame as a player in 2017.[3][4]

Playing career

Adelaide Crows

Early career (1996–1999)

Prior to embarking on his AFL career, Goodwin was an accomplished junior cricketer, co-captaining the South Australian Under-19 cricket team. Recruited from South Adelaide in the SANFL with pick No. 18 in the 1996 Pre-season Draft, Goodwin made his debut for Adelaide Crows in Round 1, 1997, however, his game was marred by a severe quadriceps injury which kept him out for months.[5][6]

Goodwin returned to the side in Round 14 to face West Coast, holding his position until he was omitted following the Round 18 victory over Carlton at Football Park. Goodwin earned a recall prior to the beginning of the 1997 finals series, returning solid performances in all four of Adelaide's wins, including 19 possessions and a goal in the victorious 1997 Grand Final.[5][6]

After a poor start to 1998, Goodwin blossomed in the second half of the season, showing glimpses of the prolific ball-winner he would become in later years and once again playing a solid role in all four finals on the way to Adelaide's second premiership win in the 1998 Grand Final.[5][6]

The 1999 season was to be one of disappointment, however, as Goodwin's performances mirrored that of his club. Despite featuring in 19 of Adelaide's 22 games, Goodwin's progress was marred by inconsistency as Adelaide finished a lowly 13th in what was, at the time, the club's worst-ever finish to a season.[5][6]

Rising career (2000–2004)

Following his disappointing 1999, Goodwin emerged as a star in his own right in the 2000 season with a string of assured midfield displays earning both his first All-Australian guernsey and Gold Jacket as Adelaide Club Champion. Goodwin capped this watershed year with selection to the Adelaide Football Club Team of the Decade.[5][6]

Another All-Australian selection followed in 2001 with consistently good performances alongside fellow star midfielders Mark Ricciuto, Andrew McLeod and Tyson Edwards pushing Adelaide back into premiership reckoning for 2002 after three seasons where the club had finished no higher than eighth.[5][6]

In 2002 Goodwin struggled for consistency, in part due to the extra attention he was receiving from opposition taggers. Highly prolific games such as his 39 possession/1 goal game against Collingwood in Round 14 were contrasted by his 17 possession game against Fremantle in Round 7. After suffering an injury in Round 19 against Essendon, Goodwin returned to the team in time for the finals, where despite high expectations the Crows were defeated in a preliminary final.[5][6]

A member of Adelaide's pre-season premiership-winning team, Goodwin's highly promising 2003 was marred by a broken arm suffered early in the Round 11 clash with Hawthorn at the MCG when he collided with the boundary fence following a contest. Upon his return to the side in Round 17 Goodwin looked to be far from his best, able only to provide a series of steady displays as the Crows, despite being one of the hot premiership favourites, were knocked out in a semi-final.[5][6]

As with 1999, Goodwin endured another horror year to mirror that of Adelaide's in 2004. Sidelined with an adductor injury between Rounds 4 and 16, by the time Goodwin returned Gary Ayres had resigned and been replaced by Neil Craig as the Crows languished near the lower end of the ladder. To further rub salt into the wound Goodwin was cited for tripping Roger James and suspended for one week in Adelaide's 25-point loss to eventual premiers Port Adelaide in Round 22.[5][6]

Career high (2005–2007)

Goodwin playing with Adelaide in 2006

Goodwin and Adelaide's fortunes turned around completely in 2005 as the side unexpectedly won the minor premiership despite being tipped by many for the wooden spoon. Individually Goodwin capped a superb return to top form, winning his third All-Australian guernsey and capturing his second club champion award. His stellar form continued in 2006, first winning the Michael Tuck Medal for best afield in Adelaide's pre-season grand final loss to Geelong (the only player to do so in a loss), before again performing brilliantly in the season proper, winning his fourth All-Australian selection and third Gold Jacket.[5][6]

On 1 March 2007, Goodwin was fined a record $40,000 and ordered to undertake compulsory counselling for placing four bets involving AFL matches totalling $16,024.58. Goodwin, along with three other players, became the first players in AFL history to be caught for betting on AFL matches.[7]

Captaincy (2008–2010)

In early December 2007, Goodwin was named the captain for Adelaide for the 2008 football season. This coincided with a move into the forward line to allow the club's young midfielders to gain experience and bolster a struggling attack. The move paid dividends with Goodwin enjoying a career-best seven-goal haul in Adelaide's crushing Round 2 victory over the West Coast Eagles. In later matches, Goodwin was rotated between the forward and back half, increasingly the latter in order to allow young forwards to stake their claims for a permanent spot.[5][6]

In Round 15, 2009, Goodwin played his 250th game. The Adelaide Crows celebrated by defeating Fremantle by 117 points, 19.16 (130) to 1.7 (13), shattering a number of records in doing so.[5][6]

Retirement

On 25 May 2010, Goodwin announced he would retire at the conclusion of the 2010 AFL season.[8][5][6]

International rules

Goodwin served as the Australia international rules football team's goalkeeper for the 2004 International Rules Series.

Coaching career

Essendon Football Club

On 30 September 2010, Goodwin announced his appointment as assistant coach at Essendon Football Club.[9] He briefly took over as Essendon's caretaker senior coach for the final round of the 2013 season, following the 12-month suspension handed to James Hird as a result of the Essendon supplements saga. In his only game at the helm, Essendon lost to Richmond by 39 points.[10]

On 10 October 2013, Goodwin was promoted to the role of senior assistant coach for the 2014 season, following Mark Thompson's appointment as interim senior coach for the period of Hird's suspension.[3][11]

Melbourne Football Club

On 18 September 2014, Goodwin signed a five-year contract with the Melbourne Football Club. He served for two years as an assistant coach under senior coach Paul Roos before taking over as senior coach for three years from 2017 in a succession plan.[12][13][14][15] After a ninth-place finish in 2017, Goodwin led the club to its first finals series in twelve years in 2018. Melbourne reached the preliminary final, where they lost to eventual premiers West Coast by sixty-six points at Optus Stadium.[16]

After falling to second-last in 2019 and narrowly missing out on the finals in the shortened 2020 season, Melbourne under Goodwin surged forward in 2021, winning their first nine games, their best unbeaten start to a season since 1956,[17] and never finished a round lower than fourth on the ladder. Melbourne won their first minor premiership since 1964 — then their most recent premiership season — and advanced to their first Grand Final since 2000, prior to which Goodwin was named AFLCA Coach of the Year. In the 2021 AFL Grand Final against the Western Bulldogs, Goodwin's Demons started well, but faltered in the second and early in the third quarter and trailed by as much as nineteen points. Melbourne then put together a massive turnaround, scoring the next twelve goals en route to a 74-point victory, claiming their thirteenth flag and ending their 57-year premiership drought.[1][18]

Melbourne's premiership success prompted several in the football media industry to canvass the possibility of a "dynasty side" capable of winning multiple premierships.[19][20] Under Goodwin the side registered top-four finishes in both 2022 and 2023 and qualified for finals, though on both occasions were defeated in straight sets, becoming the first club to suffer the fate since the top-eight finals system was adopted in 2000.[20] During this time there were several media reports of poor culture and illicit drug misuse within the club published, though Goodwin flatly denied allegations he had engaged in such conduct.[20]

Following poor on-field results in the 2024 season in which the club failed to qualify for finals, and in the 2025 season, following a continuation of consistent poor on-field results where the club sat in twelve position on the ladder with seven wins and thirteen losses, the board sacked Goodwin as senior coach of Melbourne Football Club on August 4, 2025, after Round 21, 2025 in the middle of the 2025 AFL season, despite him having one year left to run on his contract.[21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] Goodwin was then replaced by assistant coach Troy Chaplin as caretaker senior coach of Melbourne Football Club for the remainder of the 2025 AFL season.[31][32]

Statistics

Playing statistics

[33]
Legend
  G  
 Goals
  K  
 Kicks
  D  
 Disposals 
  T  
 Tackles
  B  
 Behinds 
  H  
 Handballs 
  M  
 Marks
Season Team No. Games Totals Averages (per game) Votes
G B K H D M T G B K H D M T
1997# Adelaide 36 10 4 1 93 26 119 32 25 0.4 0.1 9.3 2.6 11.9 3.2 2.5 0
1998# Adelaide 36 21 8 6 202 89 291 60 45 0.4 0.3 9.6 4.2 13.9 2.9 2.1 0
1999 Adelaide 36 19 2 2 148 77 225 49 17 0.1 0.1 7.8 4.1 11.8 2.6 0.9 0
2000 Adelaide 36 22 15 21 284 177 461 104 28 0.7 1.0 12.9 8.0 21.0 4.7 1.3 7
2001 Adelaide 36 23 16 11 370 149 519 73 90 0.7 0.5 16.1 6.5 22.6 3.2 3.9 10
2002 Adelaide 36 22 17 16 271 205 476 61 63 0.8 0.7 12.3 9.3 21.6 2.8 2.9 7
2003 Adelaide 36 19 13 12 208 137 345 62 43 0.7 0.6 10.9 7.2 18.2 3.3 2.3 0
2004 Adelaide 36 10 6 2 123 65 188 38 22 0.6 0.2 12.3 6.5 18.8 3.8 2.2 2
2005 Adelaide 36 24 20 12 313 233 546 107 64 0.8 0.5 13.0 9.7 22.8 4.5 2.7 9
2006 Adelaide 36 24 12 12 369 270 639 101 83 0.5 0.5 15.4 11.3 26.6 4.2 3.5 10
2007 Adelaide 36 21 10 8 268 248 516 91 53 0.5 0.4 12.8 11.8 24.6 4.3 2.5 12
2008 Adelaide 36 23 33 29 272 196 468 120 61 1.4 1.3 11.8 8.5 20.3 5.2 2.7 5
2009 Adelaide 36 21 4 2 220 328 548 119 46 0.2 0.1 10.5 15.6 26.1 5.7 2.2 6
2010 Adelaide 36 16 2 1 185 217 402 81 58 0.1 0.1 11.6 13.6 25.1 5.1 3.6 6
Career 275 162 135 3326 2417 5743 1098 698 0.6 0.5 12.1 8.8 20.9 4.0 2.5 74

Coaching statistics

Updated to the end of 2024.[34]

Legend
 W  Wins  L  Losses  D  Draws  W%  Winning percentage  LP  Ladder position  LT  League teams
Season Team Games W L D W % LP LT
2013[a] Essendon 1 0 1 0 0.0% 9 18
2017 Melbourne 22 12 10 0 54.5% 9 18
2018 Melbourne 25 16 9 0 64.0% 4 18
2019 Melbourne 22 5 17 0 22.7% 17 18
2020 Melbourne 17 9 8 0 52.9% 9 18
2021# Melbourne 25 20 4 1 80.0% 1 18
2022 Melbourne 24 16 8 0 66.6% 2 18
2023 Melbourne 23 16 7 0 69.2% 4 18
2024 Melbourne 23 11 12 0 47.8% 14 18
Career totals 183 104 78 1 57.10%

Notes

  1. ^ Caretaker coach

Honours and achievements

Playing honours

Team

Individual

Coaching honours

Team

Individual

References

  1. ^ a b Twomey, Callum (25 September 2021). "It's a grand NEW flag: Demons finally exorcise 57 years of pain". AFL.com.au. Retrieved 25 September 2021.
  2. ^ "Simon Goodwin sacked as Melbourne Demons AFL coach, club legend Garry Lyon 'shocked'". ABC News. 5 August 2025.
  3. ^ a b "Mark Thompson named Essendon coach as Bombers confirm James Hird won't return to top job in 2014", Herald Sun, 10 October 2013. Retrieved 11 October 2013.
  4. ^ Simon Goodwin at AustralianFootball.com
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "Simon Goodwin". 22 March 2019. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "SIMON GOODWIN". Retrieved 2 May 2022.
  7. ^ Le Grand, Chip (2 March 2007). "Goodwin cops $40000 gambling fine". The Australian.
  8. ^ Goodwin announces AFL retirement
  9. ^ "Goodwin joins coaching panel". 30 September 2010. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
  10. ^ "Goodwin offers himself for Bombers AFL job". 30 August 2013. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
  11. ^ "Thompson named Senior Coach for 2014", Essendon Football Club, 10 October 2013. Retrieved 10 October 2013.
  12. ^ Succession plan complete as Goodwin gets five-year deal with Dees, AFL.com.au official website, 18 September 2014
  13. ^ Lutz, Tom (17 September 2014). "Melbourne appoint Simon Goodwin as Paul Roos' successor". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
  14. ^ "Simon Goodwin welcomed as Paul Roos's successor at Melbourne Demons". ABC News. 18 September 2014. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
  15. ^ "Simon Goodwin to coach Demons, despite late call from Crows". 18 September 2014. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
  16. ^ "Simon Goodwin's journey from 'rock bottom' to Demons mentor". 19 September 2018. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
  17. ^ "Historic stat gives Dees fans confidence; gutsy effort from AFL's leading goalkicker: The 3–2–1". 16 May 2021.
  18. ^ "Where Melbourne Demons won the 2021 AFL Grand final over Western Bulldogs". ABC News. 25 September 2021. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
  19. ^ David Zita (12 November 2021). "'We've got no holes': Dees star issues bold dynasty claim to AFL rivals". Fox Sports.
  20. ^ a b c Chris De Silva (8 September 2024). "A timeline of the bizarre three-year run of controversy leaving Melbourne's premiership window hanging by a thread". ABC News.
  21. ^ Riley Beveridge (5 August 2025). "Goodwin out as Demons coach after horror season". afl.com.au.
  22. ^ "Simon Goodwin sacked as Melbourne Demons AFL coach, club legend Garry Lyon 'shocked'". 4 August 2025. Retrieved 4 August 2025.
  23. ^ "'Sacked after an 83-point win': Demons to stump up more than $1m after dumping 'disappointed' Goodwin". 4 August 2025. Retrieved 4 August 2025.
  24. ^ "'Mate, we need to talk': The inside story of Simon Goodwin's sacking". 4 August 2025. Retrieved 4 August 2025.
  25. ^ "'Bloody Nasiah': Simon Goodwin's parting shot as Demons axe coach". 4 August 2025. Retrieved 4 August 2025.
  26. ^ "The sacking of Simon Goodwin was ruthless but the right call for the Demons". 4 August 2025. Retrieved 4 August 2025.
  27. ^ "'Broken man': Star's potential fallout as Dees legend 'totally shocked' by Goodwin sacking". 4 August 2025. Retrieved 4 August 2025.
  28. ^ "Simon Goodwin sacked as coach of Melbourne". 4 August 2025. Retrieved 4 August 2025.
  29. ^ "AFL 2025: Melbourne sacks premiership coach Simon Goodwin". 4 August 2025. Retrieved 4 August 2025.
  30. ^ "Off-field grenades, divided board, leadership changes: What led to Simon Goodwin's downfall?". 4 August 2025. Retrieved 4 August 2025.
  31. ^ "Letter from Brad Green | Goodwin departs". 4 August 2025. Retrieved 4 August 2025.
  32. ^ "'Got that wrong': Candid coach's response to shock Demons backflip after $1m axing". 4 August 2025. Retrieved 4 August 2025.
  33. ^ Simon Goodwin's player profile at AFL Tables
  34. ^ "AFL Tables – Simon Goodwin – Coaching Record". afltables.com.
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