MELBOURNE senior coach Simon Goodwin says he’s not feeling any extra pressure in his new role, after succeeding premiership coach Paul Roos at the end of last season.
Goodwin, who took Melbourne for its first pre-season training session at Gosch’s Paddock on Monday, said he was simply looking forward to a big summer.
“What we’re blessed with at the footy club is that we’re surrounded by some great people in some really good positions,” he said.
“So I feel really comfortable working in this football department and I’m looking forward to driving the place forward.”
Goodwin spent his pre-season break “planning a lot” and undertaking some study in the United States of America.
“I had some courses over there for 10 or 12 days and then came back and then got back into planning again,” he said.
“It was only a really short break and I’m looking to taking some over Christmas.”
He added that the club was rapt to have four-time Hawthorn premiership player Jordan Lewis join Melbourne.
“When we went through the trade period, we certainly weren’t expecting to go after a senior type player, but when that arose, we were really comfortable to bring someone like Jordan on board,” he said.
“He comes from a winning environment and has created some great habits and for a young group like we are, we need to really boost that on field leadership and also role model behaviours around the club from a day-to-day perspective.”
Goodwin said the leadership group would be announced in February and added that a process would be in place before determining if Lewis would be added to it.
Meanwhile, Goodwin was confident Melbourne’s recruiting team could snare some talent later in the draft, which takes place late November.
“Our first pick is at 47, so the recruiters are working through that now and we’re pretty comfortable with most positions that we’ve got on our list, so we’ll probably look for the best player we can get at 47,” he said.