Brendon Goddard: Saints heartbreak, Essendon turmoil & Warnie’s golf bets

Brendon Goddard was the No.1 pick set to join Carlton, until the Blues lost their draft picks and he landed at St Kilda. He became one of the Saints’ most important players, played in the crushing 2009 and 2010 Grand Finals losses, then became the first AFL free agent when he left for Essendon... just months before the infamous supplements saga began.

Now a coach back at St Kilda, Goddard joins Dyl & Friends to talk about his intensity, expectations and demanding standards, and how he learned to give feedback. He also covers the phone call that told him he wouldn’t be a Blue, the driving range call that sealed his move to Essendon, turning up to the Saints’ footy trip as a Bomber, and the heartbreak of two Grand Finals. In the final stretch, he shares his golf stories with Shane Warne: the wig, the wads of cash and the Cathedral Cup tribute.

Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/EnESqUwnN4c

We talk:

0:00 Highlights

0:43 Playing against Goddard: the hot head years

2:36 “I only cared what my teammates thought”

5:06 Not everyone trains like Goddard

6:48 Arriving at St Kilda at 17

8:43 Carlton, the draft pick and the phone call

12:07 Draft party, then training at 7:30am

14:03 Grant Thomas: father figure and brutal reviews

19:36 Sitting Year 12 exams in London at 3am

22:34 Ross Lyon takes over

26:16 Saints v Geelong 2009: the greatest home and away game?

30:16 Playing everywhere and the ACL that changed him

33:54 Favourite teammates: Riewoldt, Lenny Hayes, Sam Fisher

37:29 Life after footy and Covid

41:14 Back at St Kilda: from development coach to VFL head coach

46:22 First AFL free agent: how the Essendon deal happened

47:55 Hawthorn, Freo and the path not taken

50:23 The Saints contract stand-off

52:25 The driving range call

54:34 Telling his teammates and the Saints footy trip in Mexico

56:05 Why hard conversations matter

1:01:24 Essendon and the supplements saga

1:06:32 Training alone and Essendon’s 2016 season

1:11:38 Coming home to the Saints

1:12:54 2009 Grand Final: broken nose and collarbone

1:15:18 2010 Grand Final: the mark, the draw and the heartbreak

1:21:18 What a Saints premiership would mean

1:24:47 Brisbane’s sledge circle and Martin Pike

1:29:44 Best sledges: “a head like a chewed minty”

1:33:56 Golf, Geoff Ogilvy and paddle

1:37:31 Shane Warne: the Cathedral Cup and the Red Dogs

1:39:55 How Warnie psyched you out on the golf course

1:41:55 Warnie’s wig

1:42:41 Double or nothing with Sam Newman

1:45:03 Wads of cash from the golf bag

1:45:37 “The greatest competitor”: tapping the bronze cricket ball

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