MELBOURNE coach Simon Goodwin has given insight into the emotional impact that unfounded rumours about his professionalism have taken on his family.
Both Goodwin and CEO Gary Pert vehemently rebutted the unsubstantiated rumours levelled at Goodwin, while also assuring Demons members that recent slip-ups at the club were isolated behavioural issues that do not extend to the wider playing list.
Goodwin and Pert spoke on SEN Tuesday morning, with the Demons coach addressing the scuttlebutt that has plagued him for three years.
“It's been really hard, it's taken its toll on myself, my family, everyone, and enough's enough,” Goodwin said.
“I don't use illicit drugs and I never will… never. And I've said this over three-year period now.
“It's got to stop, I've had enough. I think as an industry, we need to be better than what we are today, where we're starting to really hurt people in this game too much through this period of time.”
Pert backed in his head coach, while sharing to lengths he went to in his pursuit of the truth.
“I'm not comfortable. I'm disgusted, really, about what's played out over the last three years,” Pert said.
“When rumours pop up and I've done this at the club with other rooms as well, we check them out.
“Every single person that was actually spreading this rumour at the time, I spoke to and all of them said the same thing.
“I'd go back through the chain and took it all the way back to what seemed to be where it started from. And the one or two people where it started from all said, we haven't referred to drugs.”
Pert says that the rumours originated from Goodwin being seen in the company of senior players at the Sorrento Hotel during the 2020 off-season.
“I do not have a problem with the head coach going to what is his local pub, which is run by one of his best mates, and having a drink with two of the most responsible, sensible players we've got,” Pert says.
“There's been no facts. There's been no merit, there's been no substance to it at any stage.”
SEN’s Kane Cornes recently retracted statements he made about Goodwin, apologising to the Demon coach.
“Last week on SEN I made some fairly robust comments about Demons Senior Coach Simon Goodwin in the context of off-field issues concerning Clayton Oliver and Joel Smith,” Cornes said.
“I then spoke to Goody who pointed out that the conduct allegations made against him some three years ago were denied by him, investigated by the Club and dismissed.
“He has also made it clear to me how distressing it has been for him and his family to have the media tie those allegations to the Club’s off-field conduct issues.”
“I apologised to him at the time and want to do so again now.”
