SIMON Goodwin says finals are firmly on the agenda for 2018, but improvement and progress remain at the forefront of his mind for next season.

Goodwin said “without question” that growth and development, along with September action were part of his New Year plans.  

“We wouldn’t be true to ourselves if we weren’t sitting here with ambitions of playing finals footy – that’s something as a club that we’ve been working towards over a number of years now,” he told melbournefc.com.au.  

“We just want to continue as a playing group and as a department to develop and to continue to improve, and that’s something we’ve been able to do over the last four years, which has been a real hallmark of the footy club. But that can’t stop now.

“We’ve got to keep pushing and finding ways to improve and that will hold us in great shape for 2018.”

Meanwhile, Goodwin said he was excited by the AFLX concept, which will take place for Melbourne on Friday, February 16 at Etihad Stadium.

Melbourne is part of pool B, which also consists of Carlton, Essendon, Hawthorn, North Melbourne and St Kilda.

“It’s a new concept and we’re probably all a bit unsure of how it will actually go, but we’re looking to field a team that’s done a lot of the work,” Goodwin said. 

“We’re still not sure what that will look like just yet, but it’s a concept we’re looking to embrace as a footy club and we’ll see how it goes.

“We haven’t really done much training towards that part of the program just yet, but we’ll start to include some of those small-sided games as we lead-up towards AFLX.”