By Cam Lucadou-Wells
There’s no doubt AFL champion Brendon Goddard has been embroiled in some of the game’s most controversial events.
The St Kilda and Essendon 334-gamer took the stage at the Greater Dandenong Chamber of Commerce Grand Final Charity Lunch at Southern Golf Club on 25 September.
Goddard regaled about the tied 2010 Grand Final, revealing how Saints players thought they had the game won after he took a soaring pack mark, goaled and put his side in the lead.
That wasn’t a good mindset, given there was still five-and-a-half minutes on the clock, Goddard mused.
The draw, on top of a narrow loss by a “toe poke” in the 2009 Grand Final, left the players flat for the replay next week. They felt it was their second “missed opportunity” in two years.
“The feeling was quite surreal – 100,000 people in deathly silence and shock as much as we were as players.”
St Kilda felt it was finishing strong, while Collingwood was “physically spent” at the end of the game.
“(Collingwood coach at the time) Mick Malthouse is the only person I’ve heard say that if there was extra time, they would have won.
“The only reason they won (the replay) was because we were shot… We essentially felt we missed two opportunities.”
Playing in Grand Finals, Goddard then truly understood what footy means to Melburnians. About 10,000 fans flocked to Moorabbin for training in Grand Final week.
He and other Saints carried the dreams of fans of a club dreaming to add to the 1966 flag. He felt the “heartache” of fans at the club functions after the Grand Final losses.
“They rode the roller coaster as much as we did.”
His arrival in the AFL took an unexpected detour. A Blues supporter as a child, Goddard was promised by Carlton to be picked up as the No. 1 draft pick.
Then Carlton was penalised for salary-cap rorts. St Kilda shuffled into pole position and selected Goddard.
A decade later, Goddard moved to the Bombers, little did he know that a peptide scandal was set to dog the club for the next four seasons.
He was confident that no one at Essendon knew “this thing would explode” when he signed on.
“The thing I’m pissed off most about was it dragged on for so long.
“It wasted four-and-a-half years of my footy life. For the guys, it affected not only their footy lives but their general lives.
“There were mistakes by Hirdy, the club and everything but to sum it up, 13 guys – their lives changed forever but they never tested positive for anything.
“There was not one positive drug test and they got banned.”
Since retirement, Goddard has enjoyed life honing his golf as well as snaring his first senior premiership, unexpectedly, with Caulfield Grammarians in the Victorian Amateur Football Association this year.
For the record, Goddard tipped Richmond to win the 2019 AFL Grand Final but rated the so-called under-dog Giants as a “massive chance”.
The 11th annual charity lunch raised money for children’s charity Make A Wish Foundation. It had raised more than $100,000 in the past decade.
