MELBOURNE’S senior coach Simon Goodwin has addressed media on Wednesday morning to provide insights into the previous week at the Dees.

Goodwin discusses Alex Neal-Bullen’s request for a trade, the conversations surrounding Christian Petracca and Clayton Oliver and the focuses with two weeks left of the home-and-away season.

Neal-Bullen’s request for trade

“The need to get back to Adelaide for family is something he expressed,” Goodwin said.

“He’s such a wonderful person for our footy club and a much-loved person. He’s given so much to us, so we were very open to helping Alex in getting that request done.

“He's had such a massive impact on our footy club over a long period of time. He came to our club when we were a pretty average footy team and has helped build it to a position that’s been relatively successful over the last three or four years.

“We want to do best by Alex in this situation, family is a really important element in life and we’ll do our best in trying to get that deal done for Alex.

“He's a wonderful person and someone that we treasure.”

Petracca and Oliver here to stay

“Clayton Oliver and Christian Petracca will be at this footy club next year,” Goodwin said.

“I can guarantee it that they’ll be running around in red and blue jumpers. They’re much-loved players for our footy club.

“Clayton’s a great story in a lot of ways, for our club, in terms of the challenge he’s gone through and where he’s got to as a person.

“We’re really proud of the work that’s been done in that space…now for Clayton, it’s about getting him really healthy from a football perspective and getting him back playing top-end footy and I’ve never seen someone that’s more determined to do that.”

Oliver’s injury

“Clayton’s had some surgery on his hand, to remove a plate,” Goodwin said.

“He’s also got a PCL [injury] that he’s dealing with and woke up post-game with some sore ribs, he’s got a crack in a few of those ribs.

“We’ve got to get him physically well again.

“He’s walking around this morning with a smile on his face and he’s more determined than ever to get his footy back to the highest level and is looking forward to putting in a huge off-season to get himself ready for pre-season.”

Forward-half efficiency

“I think I’ve been on the record in saying that for success on-field, you need to be good in all three phases of the game and we haven’t got that part of our game right,” Goodwin said.

“We need to punish on the scoreboard, and we need to still remain a very strong contest-based team.

“We understand that, that we haven’t been good in the phases that we need to be good to get the success we need.”