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Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin says his AFL club has “moved on” after a player-led revolt resulted in the last-minute cancellation of a so-called pre-season ‘torture camp’.
After onballer Dom Tyson and forward Christian Salem suffered injury setbacks at the same guerrilla-style 2016 camp, Demons’ players voiced health and safety fears to the AFL Players’ Association about a repeat camp in December.
Despite the group of concerned players bypassing the leadership group, Goodwin rejected the notion it was slap in the face to his authority but admitted he would have liked more notice.
“Obviously the timing (could) have been better,” he told reporters on Monday.
“We would have liked to have known earlier but, in saying that, as soon as we found out, the leaders were fantastic.
“They brought it to the footy club’s attention, they brought it to my attention and … we build programs together.
“So we put it to bed really quickly and we moved on.”
The 41-year-old Goodwin, entering his sophomore season as senior coach after Paul Roos relinquished the reins, was adamant the backflip wouldn’t sidetrack the club’s campaign to play finals for the first time since 2006.
“Two days in a camp isn’t going to define the Melbourne footy club and it certainly won’t define how we go this year,” the second-year coach said.
The Demons fell agonisingly short of breaking their decade-long finals drought last season, shunted out of the top eight on percentage after a shock loss to Collingwood in round 23.
The club’s off-field drama has been compounded by a pending Victoria Police investigation, with an unnamed Demons player accused of sexually assaulting a Melbourne woman while on an end-of-season trip to Bali in September.
With a disappointing end to 2017 in the rear-view mirror, the former Adelaide premiership star backed his side to turn the tide.
“I’ve got complete trust in this playing group,” Goodwin said.
“They’re really unified in building what they’re building and they know the hard work it’s going to take.”
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