You’re right, it is my interpretation. I acknowledge that there has been support thrown behind him and his leadership, but of course there would be. I judge based on what I see and I see a leader who I am not sure would make a great head coach.
Feel free to discuss otherwise.
Nah… i’m Very confident the on camera persona is bang on for the Scott brothers
IDK why we’re giving much credence to publicly stating. Trump publicly stated he was the best.
I forgot just how big BJ’s leap used to be
What on earth was that weird torp kick that went 60 metres and still went through post height, where has that been, that looked like it would go half the field
He was an exceptional player of amazing skill, and a great clubman, you couldn’t ask for more from a footballer, but you wished a little more for him, hope he finds it in life after footy.
Timely.
tbanks bj.
Thanks BJ
Deserves his life membership for this tweet alone. Onya BJ.
Great to see Jobe in the photo at the farewell dinner. Hooker and Hurley there as well. Obviously all good mates.
Glad he’s retired.
Glad he’s not playing anymore.
So very, very glad he has Life Membership.
Thanks for everything, Brendon.
I wish he was 2 years younger and could have enjoyed the beginning of what I think we’re about to witness on field. He really deserved to be a part of it. It’s just unfortunate that he hit the end at the wrong time.
Buckley is one who seems to have adapted his personality to suit coaching.
IMO BJ is competitive and driven enough to do the same if someone were to convince him that was the best way to go about it.
That’s a good comparison. Both Bucks and BJ were super competitors who demanded the best not only of themselves but also their teammates. It took Buckley about 5 years of coaching and some serious Eddie love to survive and show he could change.
That tweet is perfect.
Please don’t finish your career with another spoon courtesy of FCFC
If he plays for FCFC, does his life membership get revoked?
Automatically
YES.
I’d be giving him the Murtaugh treatment
Exceptional.
Brendon Goddard
It should have been a celebration. Reaching 200 games in an AFL career is an awesome achievement. It’s a strong reflection of character, persistence and athleticism. But, in this case, it was anything but a happy occasion.
Jobe Watson was famous around the group for giving memorable pre-match speeches. Some were really good. Others went the other way, which often gave us a bit of a laugh. Either way, they brought us closer together and got us primed for what lay ahead.
This time, as Jobe prepared to lead us out to take on St Kilda, his big milestone match, it became plainly obvious that Etihad Stadium that Sunday in mid-2015 was the last place he wanted to be.
Before us in the dressing room was a man completely dejected and sapped of energy. When he started speaking, I remember I could feel the whole room just deflate.
Jobe was our captain, our leader, someone who’d been so strong and put on such a brave face as the investigation and speculation went on and on. But now he was beyond trying to pretend.
It’s a pretty good excuse for what ended up happening in that game. We got beaten by over 100 points. Publicly, it was revealed that Jobe had a shoulder injury, which ended up needing surgery and ended his season. But there was much more to it than that. It was obvious to everyone in the room that the bubble had burst.
I went on record some time later saying it was the only time in my footy career that I’d given up in a game. Whatever obstacles I’d faced in my time playing to that point – and there were many – that game against my old club, the Saints, was the only time I’ve felt that it was all too hard. I say that with a fair bit of grief.
I’m a firm believer that going through great adversity is when you learn and evolve. I think everyone who went through Essendon’s dark days is probably a better person for it, as hard as it was. I also strongly believe the club is in better shape now than when I started there in 2012 after a decade at the Saints.
I was excited to join the Bombers. We did what we believed was due diligence and thought Essendon was a great fit. The club itself, their history, their list at the time – we were optimistic they were destined for success and I could play a worthwhile role.
Everyone involved at Essendon had no idea of the things that were about to unfold at the time of my departure from St Kilda. When news broke, it was a shock for everyone. To have it drag out as long as it did, that’s probably the main frustration looking back.
saw what it did to the club and the supporters. I saw what it did to the coaches and support staff, people like Hirdy, Bomber and Bruce Reid.
Seeing Hirdy, we’re all aware of his struggles in more recent times but, back then, to see a guy with such resilience go through that and try to get on with his job was inspirational but also really tough. He’s one of the most mentally tough individuals I’ve ever met, but it even got the better of him.
The chairman David Evans, one of my really good friends, was a victim of it all. His health deteriorated and seeing the toll it took on him was devastating.
Then there’s the players. It robbed four or five years from the careers of 30-odd individuals. The flow-on effect is hard to measure, in terms of how it might affect them long-term. Jobe probably took more responsibility and load than anyone, being the face of the club and the captain. Everyone went through a long and sustained period of extreme adversity.
As hard as that was, we tried to keep it in perspective and see it just as a hurdle in our lives. Dealing with hurdles presents opportunities to grow. When it probably looked from the outside like we were at our lowest point, in 2016, I felt that the club started to gain a second wind and began to rebuild.
With Jobe out, I captained the side that year and, as much as there was still doom and gloom, it also ended up being one of the most enjoyable years of football I’ve had.
It was a unique situation, with a dozen players forced onto the sidelines. But what that meant was there was no expectation on us to win. It was never talked about that way, but finishing up the table was out of the equation. We knew we were going to struggle, with top-up players and a very young list, but I kind of found the enjoyment of playing football again for what it is.
I could just focus on playing the game I love, helping develop young players and seeing their potential. I really enjoyed that.
I don’t think someone like Orazio Fantasia would be the player he is now if not for the situation we were in back then. Same with Zach Merrett and Joe Daniher. There’s a real silver lining there.
A lot of people focus on the negatives. I do it at times, too. But I think we did a great job, led by John Worsfold, who made sure the attitude was always positive. The result is that the club is in pretty good shape now as a business and, most importantly, in terms of culture.
With all the information and opinions flying about the place, it was impossible to ignore the commotion around us. But I’d had a good education in dealing with that sort of thing from a pretty early age and was able to draw on that.
It started when I was playing top-level AFL football as a Year 12 student at Caulfield Grammar. The school used to allow me a couple of half days a week to go to main training sessions. I didn’t have my licence yet, hadn’t turned 18, so Aaron Hamill would drive past school mid-morning and pick me up in his BMW, which was a pretty unique situation.
From about Year 9 or 10, when it became clear I was going to be entrenched in senior football, my studies started to suffer. It just wasn’t all that important to me anymore. I made sure I passed my final exams – I was determined to tick that box – but, when you’re that young and being talked about as a potential top draft pick, it’s hard [to think about much else.
Starting your career that early doesn’t happen anymore, with the draft age increasing, probably to give kids a chance to grow up a little bit, physically and mentally, before going into the footy bubble. I think that’s a good thing, together with better pathway systems leading up to that point.
I was lucky to have a good management group, which I signed with as a schoolkid. They helped me prepare as much as possible. Still, going from being a carefree schoolboy to playing AFL footy, where the microscope is on you all the time, is a big change.
I was well supported at St Kilda. I stressed a bit at times about my progress and whether I was living up to expectations. But the club and the players, including mentors like Robert Harvey, Fraser Gehrig, Andrew Hamill, Andrew Thompson and others, kept me on track.
They reminded me that the only thing that was important was what my coaches and teammates thought and that I needed to learn to shut out the ‘noise’, as we call it these days.
It was a tough lesson. It was probably a good three or four years before I felt comfortable with the idea that scrutiny from so-called experts is always going to be there. It’s part and parcel of the game and you have to deal with it.
The fact is, of course, we’re all human and get affected by the things going on around us. Footballers are not superheroes. They’re not bulletproof. With the growing discussion about mental health, hopefully we’re heading in a better direction than when I started out.
Entering senior footy as a schoolkid and going through the challenges at Essendon were two of the toughest situations I had to face. A third was leaving the Saints. Being the first year of free agency, it was another unique situation I found myself in.
I can speak pretty freely now – I was at a footy club which I felt didn’t really want me. There was another club or two showing me a lot of love and it became clear I had to make a decision. As much as I loved St Kilda and wanted to stay, I felt backed into a corner and perhaps that’s the way they wanted it.
As you get older you understand the politics in football and, as much as you might hate it, you realise that it’s part of the business, especially for a club. They’ll be the first to cut you off at the knees when it suits them and I think it’s pretty good that guys are taking a bit more initiative and taking control of their own careers.
Free agency has been prevalent in American sports but, since it’s come along here, guys have been taking more control of their careers. Some people would say there’s too much power in the players’ hands now, but the power’s been with the footy clubs for a very long time.
Inside the playing group at St Kilda there was a lot more openness and honesty. Players and coaches would give each other feedback 24/7. It was a key aspect of the strong culture there.
Anyone who took an interest in my career would know that I’ve been animated and sometimes overly passionate. Criticism of me and some of my body language at times was warranted. But, when you’re around the same guys six or seven days a week, you get to understand each other.
The people around me, the guys I played with, knew that about me, that there were times my emotions would get the better of me and it would boil over. I can’t say they never took it personally, but they always knew where it was coming from, that it was coming from a good place. I wanted the best out of myself and the people around me, and wanted the team to do well.
I knew what my teammates thought of me and I was always open to having open lines of communication.
I can speak pretty freely now – I was at a footy club which I felt didn’t really want me. There was another club or two showing me love and it became clear I had to make a decision.
That two-way street wasn’t as evident at Essendon when I got there as it had been at St Kilda. I think it was in my second year at Essendon, there was a middle-leadership group we’d set up with our sports psych at the time, Jonah.
They wanted to start a system of getting those players to give feedback. They asked me to be the first cab off the rank.
The middle-leadership group got me in, sat me down and gave me their thoughts on what they felt I was doing well and not so well. They told me where they believed I could improve.
Jonah told me afterwards that the players were pretty intimidated having me first-up. But the idea was to show them that communication is always a two-way street. Communication builds respect, bonds and friendships.
You don’t have to like every person you work with. But you’re all there for the same reason and you’ll help each other achieve your goals if you’re working together and creating a powerful environment. One of the most important ways of achieving that is by being honest with one another.
After a while we managed to create that dynamic at Essendon and the club is clearly better for it.
That’s what culture is. It’s a behaviour, a way of thinking, a way of doing things. It’s a level of respect and closeness within the group. It became a way of doing things at the Bombers and I’m glad I could play a role in developing that.
It’s no secret that I didn’t want to have my career end when it did. You hear stories from other players about the body and mind slowing down post-30, but I didn’t feel like I was at that spot. Regardless of how I was feeling, I could sense I could be getting close to the end just by the things that were going on around me.
It’s a bit of a balancing act to prepare for life after footy while you’re still playing, but it’s something you really have to do. You want to focus on playing as well as possible while you’re still in ‘footy club-land’, but also be ready for what comes next.
In my situation, finishing up was a shock to the system, as much as I thought I’d prepared for it well. And it will still take some to get my head around.
Thankfully, I’ve been in a position where I could take some time off. I’ve prepared financially for this time and that’s given me the luxury of having the last six months off in which I’ve spent time doing things with my family that I haven’t been able to do previously.
I’ve been taking my kids to daycare most days and picking them up, taking my little one to a little GymbaROO class, taking my oldest to swimming classes on Saturday mornings.
The other reason I’ve taken this time is to have a good think about what career path I want to take. I was drafted at age 17 and pretty much had the blinkers on for 16 years. Now is my opportunity to discover what my identity is beyond playing football.
A few years ago I turned a blind eye to conversations about post-footy life. Now, going through it, I can see how far we’ve come. There’s a lot of support for players, whether you’re a 33-year-old and had a long career like myself, or you spend only two or three years in the system. We’re a lot more educated about coming out of football.
The roles of the AFLPA and, in clubland the personal development coaches, are so much more developed in helping players make the transition. They stay in touch, check in, provide advice and support.
While I think it’s a great thing that support for players transitioning out of the game has improved, I haven’t taken up the offers because I’m lucky to have made a lot of contacts and friendships over my years of playing which are going to help me.
I’ve got some media work locked in already, which I’ve enjoyed. But I know the odds of having longevity in the media are pretty slim, so I’ve been conscious of finding another career path, potentially within golf, which I love, as well as keeping up some business interests I’ve got in place. Over the next month or so, things will become more concrete.
In the meantime, I’m sort of bracing myself for the start of the new season. I’ve spoken to mates like Nick Riewoldt and Leigh Montagna, who warned me about the roller-coaster you can go on when you finish up.
They said it’s all good during the off-season, but once the season gets underway again you start to feel a bit differently. You get this FOMO when the teams go back to training. It’s a reminder that this is reality now, that your career is over.
BJ is such a champion. Good head on him lucky we had him.
Also season 2016 was pretty fun, beating Melbourne and Carlton and a young JoeD and Tippa rampage second half to finish the season made it a pretty good one to remember.
Parish was thrown in as one of the main two mids in his first year and put up some incredible consistent form
Great read from a good egg. We would’ve been cooked without him.