AN OFF-season program by Melbourne’s senior coach in waiting Simon Goodwin was the catalyst for making midfielder Bernie Vince into the player he is today.

That’s according to the man himself who said Goodwin introduced him to “a really good off-season training program” in his second year at Adelaide in the mid 2000s, when they played together.

“I was cruising along and he (Goodwin) sat me down and he actually made me do what he did, which I wasn’t happy with at the time, because it hurt a lot,” Vince told Dee TV.

“But it taught me how to actually train … but I thought I was training all right.

“To have a guy in an elite category – he’s a five-time All-Australian and an absolute gun and he was my mentor at the time – he taught me how to train and I’ve just tried to work off that each year. I probably won’t try and change a lot from that.”

Vince said he regularly caught up with Goodwin in 2014, who was an Essendon assistant coach in 2013, before being appointed as Paul Roos’ successor.

“I’ve caught up with him a fair bit,” he said.

“I didn’t try and tell him too much [about Melbourne], because he was part of the Essendon coaching group, but I think he was a bit the same the other way – he didn’t give me much either.

“But I’m good mates with him still and his family and his kids, so I went out there for dinner a fair bit. It’s great to have someone like that over here. I knew a few people in Victoria [when I arrived], but he’s a guy who I can really bounce things off and we’ve been mates for a fair while now. He’s real honest in the way he speaks to me.”

Vince said Goodwin simply showed him what sheer hard work was all about in his off-season program, which he still swears by today.   

“After my second year [with Adelaide], I was doing the off-season program … but it wasn’t until he (Goodwin) pushed me along that [helped],” he said.

“I played 10 games in my first two years and he sat me down after my second year and made me train with him after the break. I played every game the next year, my third year, apart from being injured for two [matches], but I got straight back in [the side], which I never thought would happen. I probably didn’t think I’d even make it at that level to be honest. I thought I was just a lucky bloke going through the system and it made me really believe in myself.

“The year after we trained together again, [which was my fourth season], it was my best and fairest year (2009). It [showed] just how hard you have to train to make it at that level and what a guy of his calibre (Goodwin) does each year, which no one sees behind closed doors.

“You see other elite players at other clubs and you see that they’re good – but there is always a reason why.”

Vince conceded he would have to back off from ‘Goodwin’s program’ a little bit, due to recent “minor” shoulder surgery, but he was confident about his upcoming pre-season.

But as for getting comfortable in his second year at Melbourne, Vince said there was no chance of that happening.  

“Really, you’re always striving to go to another level – no matter where you are as a player,” he said.

“As [elite performance manager] Misso (Dave Misson) said ‘those guys that are getting past the half-way point of their careers – it’s better to wear out than rust out’.”