He reiterated the club's interest in Essendon defender Michael Hibberd, but said staff had not spoken about the possibility of Adelaide on-baller, and former Demon, Scott Thompson returning to the fold.

"There's no doubt we won't go too far away from the draft," Goodwin said. "It's been really strong for us over a period of time, but we'll find as many ways as possible to improve our list."

Goodwin, who has taken over from veteran coach Paul Roos as part of a succession plan,

said he did not know whether the Dees would play finals in 2017 after just missing out this year, but said he was more focused on continually improving.

"I think this year we saw glimpses of what we're going to be," he said. "We've also seen glimpses of where we've been.

"I hope it is next year because we're going to aspire to play finals, but time will tell and this journey could take some time."

Goodwin said he wanted to focus on contested football.

"We saw over the weekend that in finals that the contest is still king and we're going to build our team from there out," he said.

Goodwin said one of the most challenging parts of bringing a lot of young players into a club at the same time was making sure they put the team first. That was something Roos had emphasised and he hoped to continue to build.

Goodwin said one of his major strengths was getting to know the players well and helping them to improve.

Young star Jesse Hogan has one year left on his contract and Goodwin said he would work hard to keep the forward at Melbourne.

"One thing I do know about Jesse is he loves his teammates, he loves playing for this club and I've got a really strong relationship with Jesse," he said.

"We're really confident he wants to be part of the Melbourne footy club."

Roos took on the senior coaching role at Melbourne in 2014, when the club was at rock bottom. The team finished the 2013 season with just two wins, in 2014 they won four, this year is was 10, including a memorable win over reigning premiers Hawthorn.

Goodwin said in his two years as Roos' successor he had learned the importance of being patient when developing young players.

"We've gone from a club that won four games up to 10, which is a significant jump," he said. "With that there are some ups and downs and you do have to remain patient."