Melbourne have backed senior coach Simon Goodwin to lead the embattled AFL club back to finals but have overhauled his assistants following a review into their football department.
The Demons released the hotly-anticipated findings of two reviews into their football department and board, on Friday, as they try to settle more than 12 months of turmoil.
Since Goodwin coached them to their drought-breaking 2021 premiership, Melbourne have had straight-sets exits from the '22 and '23 finals series and this season they failed to make the top eight.
But the review backed the senior coach, while changing up his assistants, including appointing two midfield coaches to handle a unit headlined by disgruntled stars Christian Petracca and Clayton Oliver.
"The review confirmed the strength of our football program's leadership and staff, while identifying an opportunity to refresh energy and leadership within the assistant coaching group supporting senior coach Simon Goodwin," president Brad Green said in a letter to members.
Interestingly, football boss Alan Richardson wasn't mentioned in Friday's release.
The Demons have appointed Goodwin's old Adelaide teammate and experienced assistant coach Nathan Bassett to oversee their backline and team defence.
Former Melbourne skipper Nathan Jones returns to work as midfield coach alongside Sam Radford, while Troy Chaplin will switch to forward line coach.
The appointments follow forward coach Greg Stafford's departure and former senior assistant Andrew McQualter landing the West Coast senior coach role.
The review found Melbourne needed to "refine our method of play" and empower their players in their high performance model, with the Demons engaging an external leadership expert to implement a club-wide program.
Former All Blacks manager Darren Shand, involved in the review, will mentor the club's leaders.
Green admitted 2024 was difficult on multiple fronts.
"We faced some big challenges, and we recognise that certain off-field issues caused disruptions," he said.
"We admit that some situations could have been managed better, and we're committed to learning from these experiences to handle the inevitable challenges more effectively in the future."
Chief executive Gary Pert is resigning at year's end, while former player Steven Smith will nominate for the club board and is potentially their next president.
A year ago Pert made the extraordinary claim that the club's culture was the best he had seen in 40 years as a player and football administrator.
Defender Joel Smith was on Friday banned from playing until 2028 for five anti-doping rule violations under the Australian Football Anti-Doping Code after testing positive to cocaine following Melbourne's win over Hawthorn in round 23 last year.
But some of the Dees' problems have been due to simple rotten luck.
Much-loved player Angus Brayshaw retired because of concussion issues, while Petracca's season was ended by his horror injuries in the King's Birthday loss to Collingwood.
Petracca subsequently weighed up his options before the August 31 announcement that he was staying for next season.
