Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin and CEO Gary Pert have defended the club’s culture in an exclusive tell-all interview with SEN.
Persistent chatter followed the Demons around last season as their culture was questioned amid several off-field incidents and a second consecutive straight-sets finals exit.
Goodwin is certain that those off-field incidents – such as the Clayton Oliver saga, Steven May's B&F comments and Joel Smith's positive drug test - are isolated and can be used to drive standards in the future.
The coach is certain that the club doesn’t have a culture problem and says the Demons will use those occurrences as an opportunity to grow and improve their high-performance environment.
“We haven’t got a cultural problem. We’ve got some isolated incidents that we are going to deal with to drive our culture forward,” Goodwin said on SEN Breakfast.
“For 10 years now, we’ve worked on building a high-performing culture. We’ve made decisions in and around our footy club for a long period of time to build the best footy club we can to perform at the highest level, to the extent that we won a premiership in 2021, top four the last couple of years.
“Currently right now we’ve got some isolated incidents and when I present culture to our footy team, it sits above everything we do in our footy club. Ahead of Xs and Os, ahead of strategy. Without a good, strong culture, a high-performing culture, you can’t have success.
“Alignment in behaviour is critical. It doesn’t mean we’ll be perfect. It’s never going to be perfect. It’s always ongoing. As we sit here, we’ve got some isolated incidents that, together, make it look like we’ve got some trouble at our footy club, but we haven’t got the trouble that people think we’ve got.
“We’ve got an amazing high-performing culture in terms of the people and the leadership that have driven this for 10 years now.
“We’re going to use the opportunity of these isolated incidents that we’re dealing with to continue to grow and enhance that. We need to be at the very highest level for the highest success and that’s what we’re going to go about doing.”
Pert was even more certain that Melbourne don’t have a culture problem and described their environment as the best he’s seen across his 40 years as a player and administrator in the AFL.
The CEO believes the club has the right leaders in place and expects players who show behaviours like Oliver to be held to account going forward.
“People have got to understand what culture is about. What we’re dealing with now is we’re dealing with isolated behavioural issues where individuals are being held to account,” Pert said.
“When you have a cultural issue, that’s about whether you have the leaders and the leadership programs and do you have standards and discipline and accountability in place.
“I’ve got to say, I’ve been in the game now for 40 years. Our culture at the club, men's and women’s programs, is the best I’ve seen in 40 years.
“That’s because of the people, the leadership, the clarity and strength and resilience of that culture.
“These behavioural issues will be held to account by those leaders because everyone is so clear on the standards and expectations and Clayton might be viewed by some as our best player, but our best player and our first-year recruit are held accountable to the same standards, we make no apology for that.
“Recently, we have made clear to Clayton and his management that he is being held accountable and that needs to be tightened up.
“Not just for Clayton, but all the players living and breathing that culture every day need to see that everyone is held accountable.”
Melbourne great Garry Lyon, who was conducting the interview, didn’t see eye-to-eye with Pert’s claim that the Demons’ culture is the best he’s seen across four decades.
While Lyon doesn’t hold an official role at Melbourne, he’s still deeply connected to the club and wasn’t accepting of the CEO’s bold statement as a supporter who wants to see the club improve both on and off-field.
“I’m not buying it, I’m sorry,” Lyon said.
“You’re telling me the culture is the best you’ve seen in 40 years of footy – you’ve been in a lot of good footy clubs over the journey.”
“You’re telling me that you’ve got a high-performance culture, and I can’t – I’m representative of a Melbourne footy club supporter base right now who are going ‘I’m not buying that’.
“I get what you’re saying, but it doesn’t play out that way when I’m seeing incidents here, incidents there, the way that they played in the back half of the year, the discipline – all of these add up to me as not a 40-year-best standard culture.
“I’m sorry, you can try and convince me otherwise, but I’m not having it.”
Pert and Lyon continued to go back and forth on the CEO’s stance regarding the club’s culture.
Pert is certain that the behaviours surrounding the off-field incidents are isolated and credited the standards and disciplines the leadership group has instilled in the playing group.
“I’m not trying to convince you and I know that the supporters don’t like seeing our players in the media as we don’t,” Pert said.
“All of these behaviours are being lumped together when they’re completely unrelated. It’s just a cop-out to say individual behaviours are as a result of Max Gawn, Jack Viney, Christian Petracca, Jake Lever, Alex Neal-Bullen who are our leadership team who have built those standards and disciplines. They’ve held players accountable, including themselves, for the last three years that you guys don’t know about in the media, but they’re holding each other accountable.
“So, there’s two parts to this. There’s a commitment to excellence and performance on-field and there’s living the values and standards and behaviours.
“When we lump it into the culture, we’re saying these guys are failing and I don’t cop that because you know what else it does in a high-performance environment? It lets the individuals off the hook that aren’t living the standards.”
Lyon agreed that Melbourne’s leadership group are upholding high standards but being a team sport, he believes the team wins together and loses together both on and off-field.
Pert wasn’t accepting of the entire club being questioned for the culture when the leaders are holding those who step out of line accountable.
“I accept that and I’m not directing that at Max and those leaders, but we fly together, and we fall together,” Lyon responded.
“But you are because when you say we have a cultural issue you’re talking about Alan Richardson and Simon Goodwin who are two of the best cultural leaders that I have worked with,” Pert added.
“They are obsessed about our culture … I’ve never seen a coach drive the standards and disciplines and values and the culture like Goodwin. Never, ever seen it. Far in excess of any other coach. So, when you put a question mark on the culture, you put a question mark on all the people, and I don’t cop that because I look at the decisions being made and I go – those individuals are accountable.”
Ultimately, Lyon believes that Melbourne could have been more successful in their last two finals campaigns if they had their culture at full strength.
The Demons are 0-4 in finals since winning the 2021 premiership. All four of those games have come at the MCG.
“I appreciate that, and I admire that you go into bat, but I then go – this is a team capable of more,” Lyon said.
“They’ve got themselves to a position and not been able to finish and maybe it is only 2 or 3 per cent of culture strength that hasn’t been able to get the club to where it needs to be.”
Watch the full chat between Pert, Goodwin, Lyon and Sam Edmund below where the club leaders discuss Clayton Oliver, Joel Smith, off-field rumours and more.