Basil Zempilas says he attempted to get Simon Goodwin back on the dais to give a premiership speech once he realised the Melbourne coach had been snubbed.
Amid all the euphoria which followed the final siren in Saturday’s AFL grand final, Goodwin was not given a chance to give a victory speech, as is customary for the premiership-winning coach.
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Zempilas called the situation “regrettable” and revealed how he immediately attempted to make amends on the night when he realised his mistake.
“As they were having the team photo, I asked one of the people to go and get Simon let’s get him back up and let’s do it,” Zempilas told Triple M.
“And I said Simon, ‘my apologies, that was crazy,’ and he said to me ‘there’s so much going on, it’s fine, it’s fine.’
“And he stood next to me and we tried to get the PA down to be able to get Simon to say what he wanted to say in front of the crowd or whatever he might have been going to say.
“The PA I couldn’t reach, the cup had gone, and BT was down side of stage and said ‘I’ll grab him’, and Simon was ‘hey, no problem at all’.”
Despite Goodwin not taking offence to being snubbed, Zempilas admitted he had replayed the moment over and over in the days that have followed the grand final.
“I don’t want that to be remembered as the moment from Melbourne’s great premiership victory,” he said.
“I realised that Simon Goodwin hadn’t spoken. Now that was regrettable, and that was a mistake.
“In the end — I’ve played this over lots and lots of times, as you do — I will say that despite what people might say, I pride myself on this sort of work.
“I pride myself on getting these big moments right. I’ve done four Australian Open presentations, five Melbourne Cup presentations, they’re big moments and you want to get them and that didn’t go exactly to plan, clearly.
“So that’s regrettable, and it’s disappointing for Simon.”