Even so, there are ways of getting even that don’t involve giving away two goals. The coach should have dragged him after the first one.
not saying it should be done or that it hasn’t been done, but I prob need only one hand to count the number of players on the list who wouldn’t have gotten an absolute earful from the coach after something like that, a telling-off by the leadership group, etc etc.
Hard to imagine anyone jumping at the opp to get stuck into BJ…
Bj just wanted to start the victory celebration before the game ended. The wce were beaten by half time, he wanted to rub their noses in it .
Massive congrats to BJ for 300 career games this weekend. Will be remembered as an absolute pillar of strength both on and off the field. Will be great to get him to 100 club games for Essendon later in the season too. Has embraced the club and given absolutely everything this bloke, a sentinel during our darkest hours and a Bomber champ always.
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More importantly, it’s his 95th for us. Only 5 more to go!
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There was an indication that he might go around again in 2018 in an article in the Sun today. Apparently theres a clause based on performance in 2017 that triggers an option for this, but the report is that any negotiation would commence after the bye and presumably after 3 other contracts for younger players are locked away.
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Just love this bloke, has bought in 110% from day one, despite being dealt a **** sandwich. We have been so lucky to have him since he walked in the door, and it’s great to see him still playing really good footy now.
God I hope we win it for him this week
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He’s been doing this basically all year
Almost all of our smalls have had a run midfield, wing and half back. Often to the detriment of the team in the short term.
Come on sell that hat already
Pretty low-key 300th
It is hard to imagine how much worse off the club and the team would have been over the last 5 or so years without his leadership both on and off the field. He has been massive for us, there is no other way to describe. Congratubloodylations BJ on the 300 and 100+ games you will play for us shortly after.
Is very much a heart and soul player.
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Unless we get a womens team
I JUST REALIZED THAT WE PLAY THE SAINTS FOR HIS 100TH GAME FOR OUR GREAT CLUB!
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He is having a great season.
His game is built on smarts and skill and it will carry him for much longer. Got no issues with locking him away for another season after the bye.
Hope he can get it with a win. Has been one of the leaders and face of the club as an impartial voice during a tough period.
Want him to play on next year and then eventually hang around as a coach. Love him.
Brendon Goddard to fulfil his 300-game promise to Will Murray
MARK ROBINSON, Herald Sun
May 31, 2017 7:00pm
PEOPLE are quick to judge Brendon Goddard.
They see him for two hours a week, gesticulating, pointing, bellowing and screwing up his face and they think they know him.
“He’s a competitor,” Will Murray said. “I rate his football. He’s got a real determination about him.”
Will knows all about that.
The 15-year-old in January last year injured his spinal cord jumping off a pier at Half Moon Bay in Black Rock.
While Goddard competes on field, Will is competing with his body and one day wants to walk again and one day, God willing, wants to play football again.
“You can’t get far without determination,” he said. “I think I had it in my footy.”
Will played for East Sandringham, his last game in the club’s under-13 competition.
His story is well told: the accident, the broken body, the Royal Children’s Hospital, the love, support and wellwishers.
Back then, he received messages from some of the biggest names in footy and world sport.
Dane Swan and Dustin Martin were first to send video messages. Then Eddie McGuire and Luke Darcy lifted it a notch. At Super Bowl weekend earlier this year, McGuire landed Peyton Manning on the smart phone and Darcy followed with Steph Curry.
A Bombers fan, one of Will’s favourites was Goddard’s message, who was contacted by former Saints teammate Max Hudghton, who was helping to renovate the Murray home in Sandringham.
In his message, Goddard promised Will he would join him as entered the ground for Goddard’s 300th game — which is this weekend.
As the tragedy entrenched itself, and Will began the fight to recover, Will and the family wondered if Goddard had forgotten his promise.
They needn’t have.
Goddard told the club two weeks ago of his promise made.
“I thought reading his story, he loves his footy, he was a good prospect (Will played in the Victorian under-12 team) and I guess one of his dreams as a kid was to go out on an AFL ground and play a game of AFL footy,” Goddard said.
“This was an opportunity to get a taste of it. His dream was ripped away from him and it was the first thing I thought of.’’
Will says his time in hospital is a blur of emotion, but remembers dad Nick showing him Goddard’s message on the computer.
“It was a rough time in hospital and it made me feel all right,” he said.
“When I first got the message, I thought he’d probably forget about it, that it was a bit of pump-up message and that’s it.
“And out of all the people he could ask to be with him for his 300th, he asked me. He remembered … it’s petty special.’’
Will, Nick and a mate Flynn will fly to Sydney on Saturday morning. It will be the first time he will have been on a plane since the accident.
He’s a tough bugger, Will.
He spent three months in hospital, then 15 months at his grandparents’ house around the corner from home, and returned home just two weeks ago.
He wanted out of hospital as soon as possible
“They wanted me in hospital for nine months, but it’s just terrible in there,” he said.
“They teach to you live like a quadriplegic, but we decided to get out of there and get recovering and get better. I see this is an injury, just temporary.
“It’s physical and mental. I’ve got to get back walking and then playing footy. And I can’t let my mind drop off. You can’t accept it. It’s an injury but you’ve got to get better.
“Instead of looking at the people who haven’t overcome it, I look at the people who have.”
His will-power has returned positives.
“When it happened I couldn’t move from my neck down and now I’ve got my arm movement back, I’m getting finger movement back and sensation all over my body.
The first time I moved my finger again it was a pretty big thing. It’s all the little things which make up the big things.
“Because of how young I was when it happened, I’m still learning. I’ve had times when I’ve thought, If it didn’t happen ...’,Why did it happen?’
“If I start to think (like that) and I don’t really, I just say you can’t change the past and keep working hard and not have regrets.
“My mental strength is one of my strengths.’’
They are for Goddard as well.
There’s a correlation in having a fierce mindset, yet that’s the end of any further comparison.
“Obviously, he has a far bigger fight,” Goddard said. “There is a sense of mental toughness in what we do as footballers, but nothing compared to what Will has had to deal with and come to terms with.’
Goddard, meantime, is charging through the 300-game barrier.
In his fifth season with the Bombers, Goddard looks set, barring injury, to trigger a games-played clause in his contract which will allow him to play in 2018. It’s 17 games.
He’s played all 10 this year and arguably would be leading the best and fairest playing a different role to previous seasons.
He’s become an accountable stoppage midfielder and run-with player who wins the ball. This season has been accountable for Scott Pendlebury, Patrick Dangerfield, Clayton Oliver for three quarters and Patrick Cripps.
Clearly, he is a 300-game champ and one time was ranked the best player in the competition.
He is a best-and-fairest winner at Essendon, was enormous in three Grand Finals at St Kilda, is outrageously competitive. And he was captain of the besieged Bombers last season.
Always though, it’s Goddard the angry and the demanding — “It’s in the moment,’’ Will said — notwithstanding the Goddard off the field is giving and caring.
Care what people think?
“No, not really. People believe what they want to believe and see what they want to see. People who I care about and whose opinions I care about know what I’m like and know where I’m coming from.’’
Will Murray is one of those people.
“A lot of people have a perspective of people which is completely wrong,” Will said.
Best wishes to Will re his injury and hoping he may/can overcome his spinal injury. Hope he has a great time on Saturday.
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Waited all week for those caps to hit the Bombershop and there’s only five of each, for charity. I still want one but do I $100 want one?
It’s for charity… if you’re even considering it, then you want it enough to donate to charity.
Make it a business expense.
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Same