Simon Goodwin, just the fourth premiership coach in the fabled history of the Melbourne Demons, has been sacked with immediate effect, after a miserable 2025 campaign.
A victory over the cellar-dwelling West Coast Eagles was ultimately not enough to extend the tenure of the 2021 premiership coach, just a week after being on the wrong side of the largest overturned three-quarter-time deficit in V/AFL history.
The code's oldest club will now begin its search for its 32nd head coach, but just who is in the running?
6. Nigel Lappin
Nigel Lappin knows successful environments. As a player, he yielded four All-Australian blazers, three premierships and a best and fairest with the Brisbane Lions juggernaut of the early 2000s.
Just weeks after his August 2008 retirement, he joined the assistant coaching ranks of the Geelong Football Club, where he remains, almost two decades later. The Cats have won three premierships during that span, and have been one of the benchmarks for consistent excellence in Australian sport.
Lappin currently oversees the unique, and revered development pathways at the Cattery, after stints stewarding one of the competition's premier midfields. In the eyes of many, it is high time the popular figure is handed the keys to a program of his own.
