“PROUD.”
That’s how Melbourne’s senior coach felt following his team’s 45-point win over the Bulldogs on Sunday.
The Dees returned to their home of the ‘G in search of their first victory of the season and, thanks to a six-goal final term, walked away with the four points.
“As a team, we wanted to make sure we came back to the MCG [and made our fans proud],” Goodwin said.
“A big thing for us is making our people proud to belong and I think they would’ve seen the team today and they would’ve been proud of what they saw.
“The intensity, the effort, the commitment to roll and in the end, we just wore them down.”
After much commentary around their froward half effectiveness, with the naysayers particularly loud following last week’s loss to Sydney, the Dees somewhat quietened cynics during Sunday’s game.
The home side registered 29 scores from 53 inside 50s, a major improvement on their Opening Round match, where they only managed 19 scores from 51 inside 50s.
“Look, we’ve leant into that, with trying to get better in that space,” Goodwin said.
“Through the AAMI Community Series, we were starting to build, and we had a pretty good night against Carlton in that space.
“Sydney we didn’t come up to our expectations in how we wanted to play, it was tough conditions but we still own that we weren’t efficient.
“And today, it was a lot better, we transitioned the ball pretty well from the back half and we looked to connect when we had the opportunities to, whether that was deep or short.
“We’re going to keep pushing that, we’re going to keep training it, it’ll keep having moments where it’s not as good as what it can be, but we know that’s one of our pathways forward towards the success we want.”
In the lead up to the 2024 AFL season, Melbourne faced a flurry of external noise, but following the Round 1 win, Goodwin said the team was embracing the growth that comes with challenges.
“Clubs go through patches in their journey of adversity and there are different examples of what it might look like,” Goodwin said.
“You’re going to have different forms of adversity, but you can always grow and use these opportunities.”
