WHILE 2022 is only just around the corner, Simon Goodwin is already seeing his plans for next season play out. 

The senior coach led the Demons to their first AFL Premiership in 57 years in September, but quickly turned his attention to the next challenge – doing it all over again.

In somewhat of a balancing act, Goodwin said it was innate to be swiftly forging ahead to season 2022.  

“As a coach, you go into planning mode pretty quickly. It was about a week after the Grand Final,” he told Melbourne Media.

“In saying that, you come back to Melbourne and there’s a real hype and buzz around our supporters, and you certainly enjoy that.

“From a coaching perspective though, we go straight into planning and looking at 2022 and what’s possible and how we can make the team better.”

The Demons capped off their 2021 celebrations with an almighty event at the MCG earlier this month, where 30,000 Demon fans showed up in support, before returning to pre-season training on December 6.

The group was able to build on its intense off-season program from day one, leaving the man at the helm confident of where its headed.

“It’s just great now to really hone in on our next adventure and 2022 and what that looks like,” Goodwin said.

“The boys have come back in great shape and are looking forward to the pre-season ahead. 

“It was a different break for them, but they’ve been incredibly focused on their training, getting some mental relaxation away from the game and coming back in really good shape.

“From all indications we’ve seen in the first week and a half, they’ve been outstanding in how they’ve presented themselves.

“We’ve jumped straight back into the way that we want to play our game style and we build our conditioning around that. The players have embraced that. They’ve come back mentally sharp, and they certainly want to prepare themselves as best they can.”

Alongside the Dees’ premiership heroes, some fresh faces have hit the track, settling into their new home.

Recruit Luke Dunstan and draftees Blake Howes and Andy Moniz-Wakefield have all completed their first block of training in the red and blue, and will soon be joined by Taj Woewodin, Jacob Van Rooyen and Judd McVee after the Christmas break.

“They’ve embraced what we’re about as a footy club and how we’re going to go about playing our footy and they’ve been welcomed to the group,” Goodwin said.

“It’s going to be great once Christmas finishes to get the boys from Perth over.

“We’ve got a pretty big contingent of four players who are training with South Fremantle at the moment, so we will get them back into the fold and embrace them on January 10.”