Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin has revealed he sent a “cheeky text” to retired premiership forward Joe Daniher, hinting at an attempt to lure him into an AFL comeback.

In a then-shock move, Daniher hung up his boots following Brisbane’s flag triumph last September, walking away from the game at just 30 years of age and having kicked 58 goals that year.

Since then, though, Sydney has been linked as a club potentially trying to pry Daniher out of retirement — and on Monday night, Seven’s Mitch Cleary reported Melbourne was the latest to make an ‘ambitious pitch’ to Daniher to convince him to resume his 204-game AFL career.

FOX FOOTY, available on Kayo Sports, is the only place to watch every match of every round in the 2025 Toyota AFL Premiership Season LIVE in 4K, with no ad-breaks during play. New to Kayo? Get your first month for just $1. Limited-time offer.

But on Fox Footy’s AFL 360 on Wednesday night, while revealing he flicked off a “cheeky text message” to Daniher, Demons coach Simon Goodwin said it was “pretty clear” the ex-spearhead is revelling in his time out of the game.

“I might’ve sent him a cheeky text message, just to check in with big Joe,” Goodwin confirmed on AFL 360 on Wednesday night.

“Obviously, I coached Joe at Essendon in my early days as a coach, and I sent him a message just to make sure he was enjoying retirement as much as I thought he would.

“The answer was pretty clear; he’s enjoying it, so it (the attempt) was pretty short-lived. We’re going to leave no stone unturned on how we get better. Whether that be through the draft, through the trade (period), through developing (the) players on our current list in terms of how we look and how we play.

“So, we’re going to leave no stone unturned in how we go about getting better, and Joe was a sneaky text, but he laughed it off pretty quick.”

However, when probed on his club’s interest in improving that particular area of the ground, Goodwin admitted the forward line was “an area we’ve needed to get better” for some time.

“I’m sure our list management team are asking all the questions needed in that space,” he said when asked by club great Garry Lyon if key-position attack was a priority for the Dees in the upcoming trade and free agency window.

“We want to get better, and clearly, we have a very inexperienced forward line. So, that’s an area of the ground we want to continue to bolster and get better and grow quickly.

“We know it’s an area we’ve needed to get better for a period of time, and that’s the part of the ground we’ll certainly look at.”

Small forward Kysaiah Pickett is Melbourne’s leading goalkicker this season with 35 goals, followed by medium forwards Jake Melksham and Bayley Fritsch with 26 and 24 majors respectively.

Foxfooty.com.au’s Will Faulkner first reported earlier this season that Melbourne ‘closely monitored’ GWS forward Callum Brown — who just re-signed at the Giants for another three seasons, while the Dees last year had also been linked to West Coast goalkicker Jake Waterman.