A couple of months into his new role at the Sydney Swans, Director of Coaching & Performance Simon Goodwin says he is excited by the potential of the squad heading into the 2026 season.

After spending nine seasons as senior coach of the Melbourne Demons, Goodwin joined Sydney as the club's new Director of Coaching & Performance this pre-season. In his role, Goodwin works closely alongside Dean Cox and the rest of the coaching team to drive high-performance standards, on and off the field.

Goodwin said he had settled into his new role and was enjoying his time in the red and white so far. 

"I've loved the environment, it's a great environment to come in and work, and clearly the facility's outstanding but it's more, you know, the coaching group have been brilliant in the way they've been able to set up the program to try and implement the way that we want to play," Goodwin said.

"And the players' buy-in to that has been outstanding; they've got an appetite to learn, they've got an appetite to train.

"And, you know, that's the Blood's way, we want to get better, we want to improve."

Having been involved in the program for a couple of months, Goodwin said he had been impressed with what he had seen so far.

"Clearly, the leaders are brilliant in the way they go about their business," Goodwin said.

"You know, Mills, Heeney, Blakey, Rampe, these types of guys are outstanding and get all the credit they deserve.

"But I've been really impressed with some of the football IQ, of Justin McInerney, he's one guy that stands out in that space.

"He understands his role incredibly well and can see the game incredibly well, so he stands out from that perspective, along with Tom Papley as well. They're the two guys that stand out there."

What excites Goodwin most is the young talent coming through at the Swans. He said there was plenty for Swans fans to look forward to for many years to come.

"From a younger player's perspective, you know, Harry Kyle's really exciting, Ned Bowman's incredibly exciting as well," he said.

"They've got great athleticism, and they can use the ball incredibly well. Jesse Dattoli is just learning his craft, he's improving bit by bit and showing that he's going to be a player for the Sydney Swans moving forward."

Watch Goodwin's full interview, which includes how he's finding working with Cox and the Swans' coaching group as well as the side's pre-season focus, in this week's episode of Inside Sydney, dropping on Friday.