Just eight days after he was sacked by Melbourne, Simon Goodwin is already looking ahead to his next move.

7NEWS chief AFL reporter Mitch Cleary has exclusive details of the meeting that is certain to keep the premiership coach in the AFL industry next year.

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“Simon Goodwin has spoken with GWS over a role for next year,” Cleary said on 7NEWS on Wednesday.

“The link ... his wife is based in Sydney and Goodwin is expected to spend extended periods in the Harbour City.”

Goodwin confirmed he was open-minded about the future.

“I’ve spent some time up in Sydney, and I’m going to catch up with a whole range of different people,” he said on Fox Footy.

“I’m open-minded to doing any thing in football. I love the game, I love coaching. I want to get away, have a spell ... (but) coaching’s never complete, you want to get better. And I know with the experience and everything that’s I’ve gone through, with some PD (personal development), I’ll come back even better.”

Goodwin’s wife Kristine Brooks is a high-flyer in the Sydney finance world.

Brooks and Goodwin tied the knot in a beautiful wedding ceremony in Bali at the start of this year.

The couple have been together since 2021, but have largely been out of the public eye.

The move to GWS makes sense, with both Sydney clubs having long spoken about the challenges in convincing big off-field names to the city.

“There’s been a significant increase to the soft cap for football spending for 2026, so the Giants could afford it too,” Cleary said.

Meanwhile, Cleary said Collingwood legend and former coach Nathan Buckley was the raging favourite to replace Goodwin at the Demons.

And premiership hero Dale Thomas (who was coached by Buckley) backed his former mentor to do a great job with Melbourne.

Thomas said the situation Buckley would be walking into was not too similar to the situation he faced when took over Collingwood after Mick Malthouse.

“He certainly ... learnt some lessons in that first part of his year (as coach) ... it ended up being 10 years coaching Collingwood,” Thomas said on Channel 7’s The Agenda Setters.

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“If he comes in now and he gets his opportunity at Melbourne, he can go, ‘Right, this is what we’re going to look like from the top down.’.

“There’s still enough pieces of that puzzle that I think he (Buckley) can have a real impact.

“If (the Dees) do go and get him, I think he’ll be a great fit.”