High praise for Dees coach

KANE Cornes has rated the work of Melbourne’s Simon Goodwin in round eleven against the Western Bulldogs as the “coaching performance of the year”.

The Demons bounced back from their first loss of the season at the hands of Adelaide by comfortably accounting for the Bulldogs at Marvel Stadium.

Goodwin’s side strangled the life out of the Dogs, who were coming off a 111-point smashing of St Kilda, restricting them to just 59 points.

The performance, which put the Dees a game clear on top of the ladder, attracted strong plaudits from Cornes.

“That was the coaching performance of the year,” he said on SEN Breakfast.

“I was there the previous week to see what the Western Bulldogs did to St Kilda. They were a team that was in the absolute zone.

“I’ve never seen a good team as shell-shocked like they (the Dogs) were.

“What Melbourne do, the way that they guard and clog up the space when the opposition have got it is a thing of beauty, it really is for the football purists.

“Simon Goodwin had an absolutely outstanding night. I’ve been critical of him over the last few years, well you’ve got to pay him the credit he deserves when he coaches like that.

“Magnificent performance and what a response from their loss last week.”

Former Melbourne captain Garry Lyon also reserved acclaim for Goodwin and the Demons, highlighting their decision to put time and effort into the Dogs’ spiritual leader Tom Liberatore as a masterstroke.

“They just took the soul of the joint. They went after Libba,” Lyon said.

“There’s a great saying about cut the head off the snake, which is all about going after the captain. Well, you can also rip the soul out the place or go after the heart. They went after the heart and the heart beats.

“Liberatore to [Marcus] Bontempelli has been a feature of footy for the past month. There was just very, very little of that.

“I thought Simon Goodwin had a magnificent night in the coaches box. It was comprehensive.”

– ANDREW SLEVISON/ SEN