Former Melbourne CEO Peter Jackson has lifted the lid on the meeting in 2014 which ultimately saw Simon Goodwin appointed as the club’s next coach.
After a stint at Essendon as an assistant following his playing career, Goodwin was appointed on an initial five-year contract, with the first two seasons served under Paul Roos' mentorship.
Jackson said the selection panel were convinced of Goodwin’s credentials after he spoke candidly about his coaching philosophy at the interview meeting.
“(The first meeting) was pretty straightforward,” he said on This Is Your Sporting Life – thanks to Tobin Brothers.
“When you get a lot of coach presentations, a lot of them talk about game plans and the science of the game but that’s not really required. I don’t think that’s the key issues for a senior coach.
“A senior coach is someone who is going to build relationships with the players, who’s going to build the right environment so the culture of the football department is really strong and is going to demand the right standards and behaviours and that what Paul Roos was all about at Sydney.
“We were looking for someone who had that sort of language and approach, in the room was Roosy, Josh Mahoney, Todd Viney and myself and we were all looking for the same thing.
“He came into the room, he gave the spiel and then started talking about his philosophy as coach and I could have been listening to Paul Roos or myself talk, when we compared that to what we heard from other applicants, we just all looked at each other and said ‘he’s the guy’.
“So he was the guy.”
Goodwin will coach Melbourne in their first Grand Final in 21 years next Saturday, with the club bidding to end a 57-year premiership drought.