JADE Rawlings says senior coach Simon Goodwin has made a seamless transition into the role, assuming the position with surety.

Rawlings, now in his sixth season with Melbourne, said the handover from former coach Paul Roos to Goodwin had gone to plan.

“It’s been a work in progress over the past 12 to 18 months – that’s been the beauty of the succession plan. Everyone has been quite familiar with how Goody goes about his work and there hasn’t been a drastic change from the way it was last year and working with Roosy,” he told melbournefc.com.au.

“Goody, assuming the mantle this year, has been quite seamless and the players have responded well.

“He’s very comfortable in the role and he leads absolutely from the front. It’s as to be expected from my end, the way he goes about it. Everyone has been really enjoying how he runs the whole footy department and the environment he’s created has been very positive.”

Although previously backline coach, Rawlings has been the club’s defensive coordinator since the start of last season. This means, for example, on match day he oversees the entire defensive aspect of all 22 players – an area he relishes.

“It’s been one of the best evolutions of my job – having an influence across all players, rather than just the specific backline, which I really enjoyed when I had it,” he said.

“I love the fact that I’ve got the capacity to be able to influence the mids, backs and forwards and also players in the VFL, so when they come up to the AFL, they know the expectations.

“I’ve really appreciated the extension of my role and one that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed.”

Despite being involved with all players across the club, Rawlings has seen the development of the backline players over several years, such as the McDonald brothers, Tom and Oscar. And he continues to take a keen interest in their progress, among others.  

“Tom and Oscar work well together and they’ve got important roles, with the way that we play. Tom’s very experienced and is a leader of our club with over 100 games and two solid games to start with this season,” he said.

“With Oscar, people forget that he’s a veteran of 19 games and there are not many key position players going around holding up a post the way he is, with that level of experience.

“I’m really pleased, as we all are at the footy club, about the way Oscar is developing and progressing.”

Rawlings added that Christian Salem’s work across half-back last week was eye-catching.

“It was a good four quarter performance from Salem. Even in the third quarter, when we weren’t performing so well ourselves and Carlton was getting some momentum, Christian was one of the players still performing at a high level,” he said.

“It was probably his best four quarter game for the club and it came at a good time, when the club needed it.

“He’s always demonstrated a good skill set and capability across half-back, while feeling that he’s got genuine midfield traits as well. We were really pleased with his performance across half-back last round.”

In assessing Melbourne’s start to the season, Rawlings said it had been a positive one. 

“We’ve played two oppositions, which we historically haven’t played that well against. Both games have presented their challenges, but both times the players have been able to stay calm and work through that and come away with the result,” he said.

“We’ve probably been in a few situations in the last 12 to 18 months where we haven’t executed as well as we would’ve liked. In the last quarter against Carlton, we were able to arrest the momentum and get it back on our terms a bit and show that we could score quite heavily.

“It was a good challenge – the opposition was very competitive last week and we ended up prevailing, which was pleasing.”

Rawlings said this Saturday’s clash against the Cats at Etihad Stadium was another strong test for the side.

“It should be a really good contest. Clearly, we’re well aware of Geelong’s capabilities – they’ve got a lot of good players and a system they’re very familiar with.”

“Both teams will feel quite confident going into the game, so it should be a good battle.”