Essendon champion Matthew Lloyd has suggested he would consider moving coach Simon Goodwin on if he were Melbourne.
Melbourne is currently 15th, three games outside of the eight, having finished 15th last year.
Goodwin led the Demons to a drought-breaking Premiership in 2021 but was bundled out of finals in straight sets in 2022 and 2023 before missing finals completely last year.
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Lloyd explained that the Demons have a great list yet are finishing low on the ladder and would move Goodwin on, even though he has a contract for next year.
“Do they go another year and just put faith in (Goodwin) that it's suddenly going to turn around? All the players are out there. They've got generational type players and they're finishing bottom four,” Lloyd said.
“For the reason that they need fresh ideas, and I respect Simon, he's brought a lot of success to Melbourne, but do they need a fresh set of eyes overseeing the program?”
Sacking Goodwin would be a bold move for the Demons and would reportedly cost them roughly $1.5-$2 million to pay out his contract.
Possible replacements include experienced AFL coaches such as Adam Simpson and John Longmire, or they could look at hiring an inexperienced coach.
Melbourne had a treacherous off-season with players such as star midfielders Christian Petracca and Clayton Oliver looking at requesting trades.
They have also faced criticism for their poor scoring accuracy, which has cost them wins this season and finals in past years.
Goodwin has repeatedly said they are trying to improve their goalkicking accuracy over the past few years, but have kicked more behinds than goals in eight of their 14 matches just this year.
Lloyd stated that the Demons are seeing the same problems on the field, and a new coach may change them.
"They've had patches that have looked OK, but we're still hearing the same things over the weekend and seeing the same problems.”
“The on-field stuff at Melbourne, to me, it's a broken record.”
Melbourne has the bye this week before travelling to the Gold Coast to take on the Suns in Round 16.