Change then came swiftly.

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At about 7pm Monday the phone rang. Simon Goodwin was at home in Malvern when Brad Green called.

“Mate, we need to talk. Are you home? We need to come over for a chat,” Green said.

Goodwin knew the news wouldn’t be good.

Green rang from his car in the MCG car park soon after the board met, with president-in-waiting Steven Smith joining online from Europe. They’d decided that, after nine years, a premiership and no finals victories since, Goodwin’s second successive season of missing the finals would be his last.

Green arrived at Goodwin’s house about 7.30pm with head of football Alan Richardson, a former coach himself and now in the uncomfortable position of having to help deliver bad news to another coach. With them were interim chief executive David Chippindall and board member Angela Williams.

They wanted to give Goodwin the news personally and, as a group, convey the unity of their decision. With the decision made, they reasoned it would be disrespectful not to tell Goodwin straight away and risk word leaking out, as it undoubtedly would have.

It became a sticky word, that: respect. Green on Tuesday was at pains to honour Goodwin for his time at Melbourne and his legacy as one of only four premiership coaches the club has had.

However, at Tuesday’s press conference, Green was reminded of the interviews he did at the start of the year when he decried the lack of respect the football world gave Goodwin despite his achievements.

Those complaints felt at odds with the announcement they were now making. Things are never quite so simple as glib soundbites from months earlier.

Goodwin’s contract through until the end of next year will be fully paid out. There are no rolling employment contracts or three-month termination payments, he will be paid full freight until the end of next year. It is not an inconsiderable sum.

Goodwin hadn’t seen the decision coming. He thought he was having some success reinventing Melbourne’s game with the team he had.

On their Monday-night visit, Melbourne’s delegation let Goodwin digest the news and contemplate how it would play out on Tuesday and beyond. How did they want to handle the news? Did he want to coach the last three games? No. Did he want to be in the press conference? Yes. What about the payout?

When the quartet left, Goodwin picked up the phone to his manager Michael Doughty, a former Adelaide teammate who is still based in Adelaide working for agency TGI. It will be for Doughty to work with the club on the details of the payout. It will be for the club to decide with the AFL if it can be staggered over several years under the soft cap, as Hawthorn’s was to Alastair Clarkson.

Doughty and Goodwin discussed what was next for him in the short, medium and longer term. They are, in order: holiday, probably media work next year, and hopefully a senior coaching job after that.

Thus, his demeanour at his press conference with Green was as much a job application as it was termination.

“Bloody Nasiah,” he smiled, when Green was asked if the Saints game had cost Goodwin his job. Doubtless it was not the first time Goodwin had cussed Wanganeen-Milera’s name recently.

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The entire playing list squeezed into the Ron Casey room in the MCG press box. Another Casey played a part in the actual press conference when Goodwin, now contractually unshackled, finally gave his frank thoughts on the Demons’ distant training base. Suffice to say he won’t miss it, and judging from the guffaws of his now former players, they have a similar affection for the windswept training paddocks halfway to Phillip Island.

Then Goodwin and the board filed out. The players clustered at the back of the room solemnly before moving to an adjoining room to discuss what to do next. Training was cancelled. Kicking a soccer ball around together away from Gosch’s Paddock and the club seemed as good an idea as any.

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