A 'blue collar' victory
Simon Goodwin says he is 'just a blue-collar hard worker' so he is not surprised he has polled only nine and 10 Brownlow Medal votes in each of the past two sea
Simon Goodwin says he is 'just a blue-collar hard worker' so he is not surprised he has polled only nine and 10 Brownlow Medal votes in each of the past two seasons while winning Adelaide's club champion award - the Malcolm Blight Medal.The brilliant left-footed midfielder, a four-time All-Australian and now a triple Blight medallist, thinks he might have to start bouncing the ball more - 'carrying the footy with explosive speed' - to gain more recognition from umpires."A lot of the really good players are blessed with a lot of speed and they bounce the ball and carry it a long way - and that's probably not one of my strengths," Goodwin said after another runaway win as the Crows' best player - as he also was in 2000 and 2005."To catch the umpires' eyes, I think you do have to bounce and carry the footy. The Judds and the Goodes and these sort of guys do that for a long period of the game and they're terrific players who certainly catch the eye. They're entertainers of the game. I guess I'm just a blue-collar hard-worker."Goodwin said he held Adelaide's club champion award 'in really high regard' because the club's coaches cast the votes."They're not easy to win, so to win three - the same as Roo (Mark Ricciuto) - is a little bit embarrassing, but, at the same time, very rewarding," he said."The Brownlow is definitely a great award to win. I haven't traditionally polled very well. My role changes quite a bit in terms of tagging and run-with and playing my own game, so to get votes is always a little bit difficult in that role. I'm probably more inclined to get votes in something like a best and fairest or a coaches' award where they know the role I'm playing."