Coburg Ruckman a Tigerish type

Published from last weeks edition of Inside Football by Paul Amy.

FORMER Tiger and Demon Andy Goodwin played his football with a ruggedness and rough edge that made opponents keen to keep up with his whereabouts on the field.

He was all flailing arms and legs, and he ran straight and with surprising speed. It didn’t pay to get in his way.

One of his coaches once said he was like raw sugar: “very unrefined’’. Goodwin himself said he operated with “controlled awkwardness’’.

Physical contact was at the heart of his game. He gave punishment and he accepted it, breaking his nose more than 20 times during his long career.

There is a fair bit of his father in Coburg ruckman Tom Goodwin.

At 200cm and 106kg, he cuts an imposing figure on the ground, and his presence assures young Lions that help will be at hand if things get willing.

Goodwin, 24, says his game revolves around “having a red-hot crack‘’.

Regularly coming up against AFL-listed ruckmen who are better paid and prepared, he is intent on “making sure they walk off the ground knowing they’ve played a game of footy against me’’.

“I’m a competitor. Love the contest, always have,’’ he said.

Like his dad, Goodwin was a late starter to senior football. He played juniors at Wandin, but switched to rugby league, making a Victorian schoolboys team.

When Goodwin senior landed the coaching job at Wandin, his son went back to football to play under him. But injuries held him back. He broke a leg in his first year, an arm in the second and copped a knee injury in the third.

Wanting a fresh start, he went to Port Adelaide in 2013, tapping Goodwin senior’s friendship with his ex-Tigers teammate, Magpies GM Brian Leys.

Homesick a few rounds into the season, he returned to Victoria and landed at Box Hill Hawks.

“They needed a Development League ruckman and I was pretty keen to play the best level of footy I could,’’ Goodwin said.

Joining a VFL club was a jolt for him. “I still remember my first meeting at Box Hill. I was looking at the board thinking holy crap, KPIs, stats I’d never heard of before, all these structures … I thought, ‘Geez, I’m in a bit of trouble here’.’’

Two seasons at the City Oval produced improvement in his ruck work and  grand final losses to Williamstown, but no senior games.

Coburg noticed. Lions coach Peter German, at Burnie, had coached against Andy Goodwin, at Devonport, in Tasmania, and they’d struck up a rivalry, but also a friendship. German watched young Goodwin’s progress at Box Hill and figured he could carry the Lions’ ruck division.

Goodwin made the move last year.

“Perfect fit, really,’’ he said. “Coburg needed a big bloke and I was probably looking for more of an opportunity to play some senior footy,’’ he said. “Don’t get me wrong, it was enjoyable at Box Hill, great facilities and all that. But at the end of the day you’ve got to go where the opportunity is. In my opinion I’ve got a lot of football in front of me. I’m only getting started.’’

He played every game in  2015 and gave the Lions a presence they’d lacked the previous season.

Ahead of this year  German challenged him to do more around the ground.

“You just can’t be the tap ruckman who stands in the middle and gets bypassed by everyone,’’ Goodwin said.

“(Germo) thought I was a carrying a bit too much last year, trying to focus too much on strength. He wanted me to lighten up and cover the ground a bit more, which I’ve tried to do. I feel like I’m getting there.’’

That was evident in his Round 2 performance against Port Melbourne. He had 42 hit-outs, 17 possessions, five marks and five tackles. There was also a scrap with Port Melbourne captain Toby Pinwill, two tough men coming to grips early in the match.

Goodwin was put in Coburg’s group of rotating captains for this year. Some senior Lions think he’ll wind up as skipper in his own right in the next few years.

Goodwin, a plumber, works with his father. He can still remember his dad playing for Frankston in the 1997 grand final against Sandringham, and declaring after the match that he would be retiring.

“I was only six or seven and I started crying … I didn’t think I’d be able to go to the footy any more,’’ he said.

“Funny thing is, he went on for a while after that. He was still playing and coaching up at Kinglake in 2014. They were on the bottom of second division of the mountain comp and they rang up and asked him to give them a hand. He went down and said, ‘Where’s your ruckman?’ They said they didn’t have one so he decided to have a run.

“I was telling him not to be bloody stupid … and he goes out and breaks his ribs in the first game! He can’t be told,  that’s for sure. He absolutely loves the game.’’