Brendon Goddard says St Kilda was ‘mentally fried’ in 2010 Grand Final replay loss to Collingwood
Brendon Goddard says St Kilda’s 2009 Grand Final loss counted against the Saints 12 months later as a “mentally fried” team succumbed to Collingwood in the last replayed decider.
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Brendon Goddard says a “comedy of errors” made by past St Kilda boards and administrations may have cost long-suffering fans that elusive second premiership.
Goddard revealed to the Sunday Herald Sun's Sacked podcast he believes coaches and players were sometimes collateral damage in a series of ego-driven, bad decisions and poorly managed exits.
He retains exceptionally close relationships with his former teammates and holds no grudges about the club now, but has been left frustrated by what happened.
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“It was a comedy of errors from people in high places at the Saints for so long,” Goddard said.
“(There were) egos … relationships couldn't be mended and fallouts.”
The Saints lost two coaches in controversial circumstances during Goddard's time at the club when Grant Thomas and Ross Lyon both departed after finals campaigns.
He also questioned the decision to move on key players who would have preferred to stay.
Goddard is convinced behind-the-scenes bickering and feuds hindered the quest for a companion to the club’s sole flag, won in 1966.
St Kilda played in three Grand Finals in Goddard's 10 seasons at the club – one ended in a dramatic draw and another with a heartbreakingly two-goal loss.
He laments the club's failure to secure Lyon on a long-term deal in late 2011, thereby allowing Fremantle the opportunity to poach the coach on a $3.2 million four-year deal just days after the club bowed out of the finals.
Goddard said the mismanagement that led to Lyon’s departure tore the heart out of the team.
"Was he arguably one of the best coaches in the competition? He should have been rewarded for it," Goddard said.
"I know from my experience with the Saints, all the BS (bulls-it) behind the scenes and the deceiving things that get done to push guys out of the footy club.
"Now looking back, it was the same kind of thing with Rossy.
"If they wanted to sign him – as we all did as players – (they could have) halfway through the season. They wouldn't have let it get to the stage where someone wanted to come knocking on the door because there was a bit of vulnerability there.
"It was so unsettling. The relationship he had with all of us (was so strong) … from the moment it happened, it doesn't matter whether it is Scotty Watters or whoever. We are going to be off-side straight up because of the way the club dealt with the situation.
"It had to have an effect on the players."
St Kilda hasn't played in a finals series since Lyon's departure and is now on its third coach since.
Goddard's first AFL coach, Grant Thomas, was sacked in the days after the club's 2006 elimination final loss to Melbourne.
It emerged that a bitter dispute between Thomas and club president Rod Butterss was at the heart of the sacking, along with the coach's withering attacks on AFL headquarters.
"I don't know all of it, but I know a fair bit of it now," Goddard said.
"I was a bit younger in the Thommo era, (but) a few of the older blokes would understand more.
"I've obviously heard one side of the story (from Thomas)."
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GODDARD: ‘WE WERE COOKED’ IN 2010 REPLAY
Brendon Goddard, one of the stars of St Kilda’s heartbreaking 2010 near-miss, has revealed for the first time his team was “mentally fried” in the Grand Final replay.
In a fresh twist on the Saints’ inability to back up their Grand Final draw intensity seven days earlier against a seemingly fresher Collingwood, Goddard said the despair of what might have been in the dying moments of the previous week and a devastating loss to Geelong in the 2009 playoff had scarred the team.
“We were cooked mentally,” Goddard told the Sunday Herald Sun’s Sacked podcast.
“It goes back to a year earlier in a Grand Final losing, (then) playing in another Grand Final (in 2010) and drawing, and thinking, ‘This is never going to happen’.
“If we hadn’t lost in 2009 – or if we hadn’t even made the Grand Final (that year) – we would probably … have won the drawn Grand Final or (at least) had a better chance in the replay.
“(But) we were mentally fried.”
Goddard put the Saints a goal ahead of Collingwood in the first 2010 Grand Final just before the start of time-on in the last quarter after he took a towering mark near the top of the goalsquare.
He conceded he and his teammates thought St Kilda had game won at that stage, given their momentum.
The Magpies hit back with a Travis Cloke goal six minutes later before a Lenny Hayes behind levelled the scores, only after the ball bounced at right angles, depriving Stephen Milne with what would have been a certain goal.
Goddard remains convinced the Saints would have won the game – and the flag – if extra time had been played.
“I’ve only heard (then Magpies coach) Mick Malthouse and Pendles (Scott Pendlebury) say they thought they would have won if there was extra time,” he said.
“Things can happen and Mick can get the group back together and reset them.
“But if there was any more time on the clock, we were going to win. We were trying to win, we were still playing footy and we knew we had the momentum.’
The AFL changed the provision for drawn Grand Finals before the 2016 season, meaning extra time will always follow a drawn game.
Goddard said the signs the Saints could break the club’s premiership drought were good throughout the week leading up to game day of the replay.
But as soon as the game started, he noticed how flat the team was, having been asked to climb one mountain too many.
“(I didn’t feel it) until during the game,” he said. “You are trying to trick yourself (by saying) ‘we are going to win this’, but you could tell we were a split second off.
“That’s all mental.
“We did everything physically and mentally to freshen ourselves up, but we were just cooked.”
Goddard swiftly dismissed as “bullsh-t” claims the Saints’ decision to bypass the Grand Final dinner on the night of the draw cost them the premiership a week later.
Some have used Collingwood’s decision to attend their function as a telling moment in the replay’s build-up.
“That’s BS,” he said.
Goddard was arguably the Saints’ best player across the two 2010 Grand Finals.