A lot has been made of the (necessary) coaching changes that happened at the club at the end of 2010 and the spotlight has been on James Hird & Mark Thompson for obvious reasons.
One that I feel has slipped under the radar and had a massively underrated influence at the club has been midfield coach, Simon Goodwin.
From about 2003 onwards our midfield was considered one of the worst in the competition and was more often than not (win or lose) beaten in most key statistical areas. We had plenty of 'battlers' throughout these years but would regularly get smashed by the better teams through the middle.
Goodwin was an absolute superstar at the Crows, no question, and his influence over the likes of Watson, Stanton, Hocking, Howlett, Zaharakis, Melksham amongst others has been substantial. We're now in a position where we run deep through the middle and don't necessarily have to fear any side in this area. I'm not saying we have the best midfield in the competition but we rank in the top 4 of every key midfield statistic this year after seven rounds and I think a lot of this work can be attributed to Goodwin.
Let's not forget the Crows last year were very keen to get Goodwin back to coach the Crows full time but Goodwin stuck with the Bombers. No doubt he will be head coach at an AFL club in the imminent future but he has left his mark on Essendon in a big (and underrated) way. Looking forward to the good work continuing for the meantime though.
One that I feel has slipped under the radar and had a massively underrated influence at the club has been midfield coach, Simon Goodwin.
From about 2003 onwards our midfield was considered one of the worst in the competition and was more often than not (win or lose) beaten in most key statistical areas. We had plenty of 'battlers' throughout these years but would regularly get smashed by the better teams through the middle.
Goodwin was an absolute superstar at the Crows, no question, and his influence over the likes of Watson, Stanton, Hocking, Howlett, Zaharakis, Melksham amongst others has been substantial. We're now in a position where we run deep through the middle and don't necessarily have to fear any side in this area. I'm not saying we have the best midfield in the competition but we rank in the top 4 of every key midfield statistic this year after seven rounds and I think a lot of this work can be attributed to Goodwin.
Let's not forget the Crows last year were very keen to get Goodwin back to coach the Crows full time but Goodwin stuck with the Bombers. No doubt he will be head coach at an AFL club in the imminent future but he has left his mark on Essendon in a big (and underrated) way. Looking forward to the good work continuing for the meantime though.
