THE MELBOURNE Football Club’s road to premiership No.13 was a long one – 57 years, in fact.

But Simon Goodwin’s journey with this team is slightly different.

The Demons’ fourth premiership coach joined the club at the end of 2014 season as a successor to Paul Roos, before taking the reins in 2017. 

And after winning two finals in his second year at the helm, things took a dark turn in 2019.

“I thought 2019 was probably the most challenging year as a coach,” Goodwin told Melbourne Media.

“We won five games after playing in a prelim the year before and it was at that point that I needed to make some change.

“We had a really tough year and I could feel the game was becoming quite consuming towards me.”

So, instead of allowing the situation to spiral out of control, Goodwin used the season from hell to spark a revival in himself, and the team.

“I made some changes and got some mentors away from the game that just looked at life a little bit differently,” he said.

“[They] gave me a different approach to the way I look at the game and the way I look at my own life.

“It’s created a great energy back into my coaching … and the love of the game.

“Last year was a steppingstone in the direction back that we wanted to take, but 17th to the premiers over a two-year period is a big rise and something I’m very proud of.”

This ultimate glory was seven seasons in the making for Goodwin, who feels a sense of accomplishment after fulfilling his promise to the Melbourne faithful.

“As a coach when you set out in your career you want to be a part of something that’s pretty special to a club – a group of supporters, a group of players,” he said.

“You have a clear philosophy and a clear mission about how you’re going to go about doing it when you first present to a board about the task at hand.

“To be sitting here today, being able to achieve what’s sitting behind me there (the premiership cup), it’s very fulfilling.

“But the work of so many people is not lost on me.

“It started back with Peter Jackson, the board, Todd Viney, that had a really clear mission about what they wanted their club to look like and they went about appointing the people that they thought could drive that.

“Hopefully I played a small part in that but there are so many other people that played a lot bigger part than me.”

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