End Of Waiting For Goddard?

The Sunday Age

Sunday June 4, 2006

MARTIN BLAKE

After overcoming the pressure of being the No. 1 draft pick, a young Saint has plenty of optimism, Martin Blake writes

PETER Francis remembers Brendon Goddard well. You don't easily forget players who, at 16, have what Francis calls "a prodigious talent".

It was 2001 and the Traralgon-born-and-raised Goddard had returned from Caulfield Grammar School, where he had a scholarship, to play for Gippsland Power in the Victorian under-18 competition.

Goddard had been an All-Australian at under-16 level, and Gippsland, happy that he had chosen to return home when school commitments allowed, put him straight into the centre in its under-18 team. "He was a natural player, definitely," recalls Francis, the former Carlton and Fitzroy centreman who still manages the Power.

"He could read the ball well if he wanted to sit behind the play. When he played in the middle for us, he was making the play and going at the footy, running with it and bouncing it. That's what made him look a really good player."

All of which made Goddard the No. 1 pick in the 2002 AFL national draft, the hottest prospect in the country at a time when St Kilda, his suitor, was rebuilding with precocious youth. But for Goddard and the Saints, it has been a waiting game.

Four years on, they are still waiting for that talent to blossom in all its glory, though there is evidence it may be closer.

Goddard has turned 21, a milestone he celebrated with his girlfriend and a couple of mates from Gippsland at a Sandringham home a fortnight ago.

Twenty-one is still young in terms of AFL football, but that's not necessarily the view heard on the terraces, where Goddard has been the subject of heavy criticism. Ironically, his toughest critic may well have been himself.

But in what he regards as "undoubtedly" his best season so far, Goddard has a new mindset. "I wasn't happy with the way I was going," he said last week. "I wasn't outstanding, and I wasn't really bad, but I wasn't happy with where I was at. It's about letting go and probably not caring as much, playing on instincts and backing yourself."

Like Josh Fraser before him, and perhaps even Luke Hodge, Goddard has felt the burden of being the No. 1 pick.

"I was worried if I didn't do this or I didn't do that, but I didn't worry like that when I played footy in under-age. I'm getting back to that frame of mind - to go out there, see the footy and get the footy. I'm not thinking about if 'Thommo' (coach Grant Thomas) is going to get angry if I stuff this up . . ."

The criticism - a newspaper last year published a digitally altered image of Goddard in a space suit, under the headline, "Lost in space" - has hurt. But like everyone at St Kilda, Goddard tries to listen only to internal assessments of his football.

"Being in this little bubble that footballers are in, people tend to overlook that we're only young. Hopefully, I've got 10 years of footy in front of me. I don't read a lot. I'm not a person who goes out and buys the paper. I get told a lot of things and it's just the pressure you bring on yourself. It can affect you."

Watching with admiration from afar, Francis thought Goddard's progress was more than adequate. He noted that of all the fine young players who graduate from the TAC Cup, virtually none have dominated AFL football as a rookie.

Patience is required, and Francis thinks that what is ahead is exciting. "He was still growing into his body. He might have felt a bit of pressure because he was the No. 1 choice, but I think he's done a wonderful job. He's only 21. He was drafted at 17 and he was still a boy. People don't take into account sometimes that they're only kids.

"He's a young man now and with that maturity comes consistency. There's no doubt he's got a prodigious talent. He's going to show that even more in the next three or four years."

The question remains as to what style of player Goddard will become. As a junior, he was a midfielder, but he has grown to 192 centimetres and 94 kilograms - big enough for a key position.

Thomas has used him occasionally as a winger and more often as a sweeper across half-back, where he has had five 20-plus disposal games this year. Given that most teams tend to flood against St Kilda with its cluster of brilliant, tall forwards, Goddard has found himself spare in the back half.

It has meant that he has become something of a quarterback; his propensity for drilled, long passes - not unlike the two irons he spanks around Yarra Yarra - important to the Saints.

In the future, Goddard would like to play as a midfielder, and he noted last week that the misfortune of his flatmate, Lenny Hayes, who is out for the season due to a knee reconstruction, might open a door for him in that area.

Critics have questioned Goddard's leg speed, but that is a myth. He is one of a handful of players at Moorabbin who can run 20 metres in less than three seconds.

When the Saints play Melbourne at the MCG today, they will do so without Justin Koschitzke (head injury), Aaron Hamill (posterior cruciate ligament strain) and Hayes, three of their very best.

The crisis hit home to Goddard on Monday when he came across the stricken Hayes after a team meeting at Moorabbin. Since Hayes had played out the previous day's game against the Kangaroos, his teammates had no inkling of what Monday's scan would show - that he needed knee surgery.

Goddard was shocked, for he and Hayes are close. They have made plans to start a personal training business together. "(But) Lenny . . . would get on with the job, and he expects us to do the same."

BRENDON GODDARD

BORN 20 May, 1985

HEIGHT 192 centimtres

WEIGHT 94 kilograms

DRAFTED No. 1, 2002 national draft

THE GROWING OF GODDARD

2003-052006

Ave disposals 13.819.6

Contested ball 1.41.8

Marks 4.69.1

Tackles 2.53.9

Rebound 50s 2.14.0

SOURCE: PROWESS

© 2006 The Sunday Age

Back to News Index | Back to Home