Latest news with #Goodwin


The Advertiser
3 hours ago
- Sport
- The Advertiser
Goodwin wants Lever confident for Demons return
Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin says Saturday's 19-point AFL loss to Gold Coast won't change his plan to get premiership defender Jake Lever back feeling good about his game after a tough 2025. The loss to the Suns was the Demons' fourth in a row and all but extinguished any hope of finals football, leaving them 15th on the ladder and 16 points outside the eight. Lever was one of three players axed by Goodwin for the trip to People First Stadium with the 29-year-old instead lining up for the Casey Demons in their 97-88 loss to the Suns in the VFL. After a season where Lever has already missed eight games with an ankle injury before earning a recall to the AFL team a month ago, Goodwin said his omission was about giving him an opportunity to rediscover his best form. "It's just to get him back feeling good about his footy, back playing where you feel confident about your game," Goodwin said. "Sometimes you can do that at VFL level, and you come back a really much improved and confident player. "He's someone that we value highly. We expect him to come back soon." Regardless of Lever's situation, Goodwin will almost certainly need to change his side for next weekend's trip to Adelaide after losing Blake Howes and Harrison Petty to concussion in the first half of Saturday's game. It's Petty's second concussion of the season after his head collided with Brayden Fiorini's hip while contesting for a loose ball. Suns coach Damien Hardwick, whose primary concern was for Petty, did not however feel that Fiorini had done anything wrong in the incident. "I hope he's (Petty) okay, and I'm sure he will be but we teach our player that technique and look, accidents are going to happen in AFL," Hardwick said. "He (Fiorini) made a play on the ball. I thought he got his hands on the ball at the same time. I don't think he has a case to answer." Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin says Saturday's 19-point AFL loss to Gold Coast won't change his plan to get premiership defender Jake Lever back feeling good about his game after a tough 2025. The loss to the Suns was the Demons' fourth in a row and all but extinguished any hope of finals football, leaving them 15th on the ladder and 16 points outside the eight. Lever was one of three players axed by Goodwin for the trip to People First Stadium with the 29-year-old instead lining up for the Casey Demons in their 97-88 loss to the Suns in the VFL. After a season where Lever has already missed eight games with an ankle injury before earning a recall to the AFL team a month ago, Goodwin said his omission was about giving him an opportunity to rediscover his best form. "It's just to get him back feeling good about his footy, back playing where you feel confident about your game," Goodwin said. "Sometimes you can do that at VFL level, and you come back a really much improved and confident player. "He's someone that we value highly. We expect him to come back soon." Regardless of Lever's situation, Goodwin will almost certainly need to change his side for next weekend's trip to Adelaide after losing Blake Howes and Harrison Petty to concussion in the first half of Saturday's game. It's Petty's second concussion of the season after his head collided with Brayden Fiorini's hip while contesting for a loose ball. Suns coach Damien Hardwick, whose primary concern was for Petty, did not however feel that Fiorini had done anything wrong in the incident. "I hope he's (Petty) okay, and I'm sure he will be but we teach our player that technique and look, accidents are going to happen in AFL," Hardwick said. "He (Fiorini) made a play on the ball. I thought he got his hands on the ball at the same time. I don't think he has a case to answer." Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin says Saturday's 19-point AFL loss to Gold Coast won't change his plan to get premiership defender Jake Lever back feeling good about his game after a tough 2025. The loss to the Suns was the Demons' fourth in a row and all but extinguished any hope of finals football, leaving them 15th on the ladder and 16 points outside the eight. Lever was one of three players axed by Goodwin for the trip to People First Stadium with the 29-year-old instead lining up for the Casey Demons in their 97-88 loss to the Suns in the VFL. After a season where Lever has already missed eight games with an ankle injury before earning a recall to the AFL team a month ago, Goodwin said his omission was about giving him an opportunity to rediscover his best form. "It's just to get him back feeling good about his footy, back playing where you feel confident about your game," Goodwin said. "Sometimes you can do that at VFL level, and you come back a really much improved and confident player. "He's someone that we value highly. We expect him to come back soon." Regardless of Lever's situation, Goodwin will almost certainly need to change his side for next weekend's trip to Adelaide after losing Blake Howes and Harrison Petty to concussion in the first half of Saturday's game. It's Petty's second concussion of the season after his head collided with Brayden Fiorini's hip while contesting for a loose ball. Suns coach Damien Hardwick, whose primary concern was for Petty, did not however feel that Fiorini had done anything wrong in the incident. "I hope he's (Petty) okay, and I'm sure he will be but we teach our player that technique and look, accidents are going to happen in AFL," Hardwick said. "He (Fiorini) made a play on the ball. I thought he got his hands on the ball at the same time. I don't think he has a case to answer."


Newsroom
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Newsroom
How to ride a horse, if you don't have a horse
Alastair Goodwin remembers standing in front of an obstacle course, hobby horse in hand, and questioning the choices that had led him and his co-founder to that spot. 'We were the biggest sceptics … The couple of hours before we started we were just like, 'What the hell are we doing?'.' But after the event kicked off and crowds started lining the perimeters of the course, Goodwin, who co-founded Hobby Horsing New Zealand with Tony Sundman, tells The Detail all his worries evaporated. 'It's like, sceptics be damned, people have a really good time and a lot of people have a good laugh.' The children's hobby of 'riding' a stick with a horse head on it has been around for centuries but it wasn't until the early 2000s that it began to be taken more seriously. A group of children sitting with their hobby horses at Whanganui's hobby horsing competition. Photo: Alastair Goodwin Finland was the first country to embrace it, and the sport there is largely dominated by pre-teen girls. Oscar-nominated Finnish filmmaker Selma Vilhunen is widely credited with bringing the sport into the mainstream with her 2017 film, Hobbyhorse Revolution. While it sounds like a bizarre game of childhood make-believe, hobby horsing is taken incredibly seriously in some parts of the world. The horses are often handmade, and the goal is to make them look as realistic as possible. Many riders will train for different events, competing in the likes of dressage, show jumping, and western riding. In the past couple of decades the sport has taken off. It's estimated that about 10,000 Finnish people take part, and it's on the rise here as well. 'We get a lot of emails from people setting up [events] around the place and I know there's another organisation over in Hawkes Bay that does it,' says Goodwin. 'It is building, which is bizarre.' But, he says it's a lot more laidback here. 'We're just trying to promote it as a concept and if people want to run with it and do the kind of high-end level of it then that's good for them,' he says. Another sport rising in the ranks of popularity here is pickleball. The sport is a mix of tennis, badminton and table tennis, and has nothing to do with pickles. 'Three dads were at home with their kids during winter, and the kids were bored and the dads were getting a bit frustrated so they thought, 'Right, let's see what we can find,' and they made the game of pickleball up,' says Ange Brady, the Hawkes Bay representative on the board of the Pickleball Association of New Zealand. The game is designed to include the whole family, from grandchild to grandparent. 'Generally it's played in doubles,' Brady says. 'You've got two people each side of the net and you can only score a point off your serve.' But while it began as a fun family sport, pickleball has evolved. Brady says both America and Australia have professional league teams, and there's an annual world cup competition. New Zealand sent two teams over to last year's world cup. The open team made it to the quarter finals and the 50+ team came second out of the 22 participating countries. There's even talk of it becoming an Olympic sport, but for that to happen Brady says there need to be some changes at the governing level. 'There are currently two governing bodies for pickleball across the world. 'We need to have one governing body for the sport and a bit of consistency of what that looks like around the world, because you obviously need to have criteria that you would meet across all of the countries in order to select the team,' she says. Whether or not it makes an appearance at a future Olympic games, Brady says pickleball is a sport for everyone. 'I hear stories of kids lining up at lunchtime and morning tea time to play at schools, and then we've got pickleball available all through the day for everybody right through until the evening for those who still have to work a full-time job, and then across the weekends. 'Once you start playing, you just find your people.' Check out how to listen to and follow The Detail here. You can also stay up-to-date by liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter.
Yahoo
17 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
United sign 'transformative' Dutch defender Esselink
Dundee United have signed Bert Esselink after 25-year-old centre-half left Stal Mielec following their relegation from the Polish top flight. United manager Jim Goodwin expects the Dutchman, who has signed a a two-year contract with a club-held option to extend for a further 12 months, to have a "transformative impact" on his defence. Advertisement "His mobility and bravery allows him to engage with the opposition higher up the pitch and the statistical data reinforces his intelligence when selecting a progressive passing option," Goodwin told United's website. "Bert is also comfortable defending in a deeper block, using his awareness to remain compact and defend the box both on the ground and in the air." Esselink came through De Graafschap's academy in his homeland before making his senior debut for Cypriot club PAEEK, helping the Nicosia-based club secure promotion to the top tier for the first time. His release clause was triggered by APOEL Nicosia, but he moved to Olympiakos Nicosia in search of first-team football. Advertisement Esselink moved to Poland in 2023 and Unied say that during his two seasons with Stal he ranked among "the division's most successful duel combatants, possession winners and forward-pass completionists". However, playing 28 times last season, 22 of them starts, he could not prevent his side dropping to the second tier after finishing 16th of 18 teams in the Ekstraklasa. "Bert's arrival will have a transformative impact on our ability to regain possession in key areas and play on the front foot," Goodwin added.


Mid East Info
2 days ago
- Business
- Mid East Info
Dubai-Based idea-L® Raises $1M in Oversubscribed Pre-Seed to Launch AI-Powered Cofounder Platform Across the Middle East.
DUBAI, UAE – 26 June 2025: idea-L®, the artificial intelligence (AI) and Web3-powered platform that turns ideas into investor-ready ventures, and potential into progress, announces the close of an oversubscribed $1 million pre-seed round. The round, secured from a wide syndicate of investment angels, encompasses capital injection in the Holding Company and for the idea-L overall Project, as well as valuable 'to be unveiled' partnership contributions. These funds will accelerate technical hiring, prime the launch of the firm's governance token, GovToken, alongside a world-leading DAO-managed deVC Fund™, and expand the i-Luminary™ mentor network. Headquartered in Dubai, idea-L® is strategically positioned at the heart of the Middle East's thriving innovation economy. The region's push to lead in AI, decentralised finance, and entrepreneurship makes it an ideal launchpad for idea-L®'s vision of democratising venture creation. 'We want every would-be founder to carry a supportive, tireless, data-driven co-founder in their pocket,' said Peter Goodwin, CEO and Founder of idea-L®. 'We want to create an experience that costs minutes, not months.' At the centre of idea-L® is the Idea Realisation Platform™ (IRP™), your co-founder in your pocket. It's an AI-powered system that removes the guesswork and gives every founder a path forward. Users can begin with fast-Feasibility™, a rapid validation tool that blends structured datasets with generative AI to provide instant clarity on potential. From there, LIVE-Feasibility™ offers deeper, real-time insight into market conditions, competition, and operational risks, with the option to add human calibration through teamLIVE-Feasibility™, an advanced layer designed for founders preparing to scale or fundraise. Once an idea shows signal, the IRP™ activates full execution mode, charting a personalised roadmap, triggering behavioural nudges, and unlocking access to the IFP™, where funding is proposed, voted, and allocated by GovToken holders. This first round of funding fuels the imminent private beta of idea-L®, anchored in fast-Feasibility™. Additional components, including LIVE-Feasibility™, teamLIVE-Feasibility™, the full IRP™, and the IFP™ funding engine, will roll out progressively by year-end. This staged launch allows idea-L® to deliver immediate value, while continuously evolving the platform through real user feedback. 'We watched brilliant people walk away from great markets because their idea-to-launch costs were too high,' said Goodwin. 'By automating the riskiest slice of the journey, we unlock thousands of experiments that would otherwise die in someone's notebook.' idea-L® leverages best-in-class AI technology, including reasoning-led LLMs in both multi-model and multi-modal contexts, while actively developing proprietary workflows across logical reasoning, probabilistic programming, inference, and evolutionary learning. 'Our aim is to expand applied business theory across product categories, industries, and geographies. Ultimately, we envision large language models making up no more than 20% of our total AI architecture.' said Daniel Muller, speaking on idea-L®'s long-term product vision. A fair-launch sale of GovTokens is set for Q3, 2025. Once live, token holders will exercise quadratic voting over roadmap features, funding allocations, and ecosystem partnerships — effectively turning the user base into the platform's governing body. The same token steers idea-L®'s forthcoming deVC Fund™, an evergreen pool that backs graduates of the IRP™ and aligns incentives between validators, founders, and capital contributors.


Web Release
2 days ago
- Business
- Web Release
Dubai-Based idea-L® Raises $1M in Oversubscribed Pre-Seed to Launch AI-Powered Cofounder Platform Across the Middle East.
idea-L® , the artificial intelligence (AI) and Web3-powered platform that turns ideas into investor-ready ventures, and potential into progress, announces the close of an oversubscribed $1 million pre-seed round. The round, secured from a wide syndicate of investment angels, encompasses capital injection in the Holding Company and for the idea-L overall Project, as well as valuable 'to be unveiled' partnership contributions. These funds will accelerate technical hiring, prime the launch of the firm's governance token, GovToken, alongside a world-leading DAO-managed deVC Fund™, and expand the i-Luminary™ mentor network. Headquartered in Dubai, idea-L® is strategically positioned at the heart of the Middle East's thriving innovation economy. The region's push to lead in AI, decentralised finance, and entrepreneurship makes it an ideal launchpad for idea-L®'s vision of democratising venture creation. 'We want every would-be founder to carry a supportive, tireless, data-driven co-founder in their pocket,' said Peter Goodwin, CEO and Founder of idea-L®. 'We want to create an experience that costs minutes, not months.' At the centre of idea-L® is the Idea Realisation Platform™ (IRP™), your co-founder in your pocket. It's an AI-powered system that removes the guesswork and gives every founder a path forward. Users can begin with fast-Feasibility™, a rapid validation tool that blends structured datasets with generative AI to provide instant clarity on potential. From there, LIVE-Feasibility™ offers deeper, real-time insight into market conditions, competition, and operational risks, with the option to add human calibration through teamLIVE-Feasibility™, an advanced layer designed for founders preparing to scale or fundraise. Once an idea shows signal, the IRP™ activates full execution mode, charting a personalised roadmap, triggering behavioural nudges, and unlocking access to the IFP™, where funding is proposed, voted, and allocated by GovToken holders. This first round of funding fuels the imminent private beta of idea-L®, anchored in fast-Feasibility™. Additional components, including LIVE-Feasibility™, teamLIVE-Feasibility™, the full IRP™, and the IFP™ funding engine, will roll out progressively by year-end. This staged launch allows idea-L® to deliver immediate value, while continuously evolving the platform through real user feedback. 'We watched brilliant people walk away from great markets because their idea-to-launch costs were too high,' said Goodwin. 'By automating the riskiest slice of the journey, we unlock thousands of experiments that would otherwise die in someone's notebook.' idea-L® leverages best-in-class AI technology, including reasoning-led LLMs in both multi-model and multi-modal contexts, while actively developing proprietary workflows across logical reasoning, probabilistic programming, inference, and evolutionary learning. 'Our aim is to expand applied business theory across product categories, industries, and geographies. Ultimately, we envision large language models making up no more than 20% of our total AI architecture.' said Daniel Muller, speaking on idea-L®'s long-term product vision. A fair-launch sale of GovTokens is set for Q3, 2025. Once live, token holders will exercise quadratic voting over roadmap features, funding allocations, and ecosystem partnerships — effectively turning the user base into the platform's governing body. The same token steers idea-L®'s forthcoming deVC Fund™, an evergreen pool that backs graduates of the IRP™ and aligns incentives between validators, founders, and capital contributors.