Rate a Player - Brendon Goddard

[GVGjr]

How good of a footballer is Brendon Goddard? Good, Very Good or Elite?

What position would you see him playing for us if he was one of our players?

I think he is a natural backman but I'm guessing he could just about anywhere.

[strebla]

I think he is between very good and elite in our side I would love him on a wing i love his long booming kicks

[The Coon Dog]

Very good footballer who has above average kicking skills.

I too think he's better value to his team like Lindsay Gilbee is to us, playing in defense where he can initiate attacks.

I reckon he backs himself a bit & is prepared to zone off, so if you play through his man with precision kicking he can be exploited, as we saw for a while last year in the Preliminary Final when he was opposed to Mitch Hahn.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

Pretty important player in today's game. His gut running and precision kicking means he can find space in zones and kick over them. Big bodied player who became more physical last year.

Agree his best position is off a half back but there's value in him spending 5 minutes in the midfield too.

At the moment he's a very good player, but he could be elite by year's end.

[boydogs]

I think he is elite. Terrific marking ability, fitness, kicking and a high possession getter, can play all over the ground. The sort of player Everitt should be aiming to become.

Best suited to HBF, bringing the ball out of defense through midfield zones but not opposed to the oppositions best forward. We would probably move Gilbee up the ground for Eagle to bring him in

[GVGjr]

I think he is elite. Terrific marking ability, fitness, kicking and a high possession getter, can play all over the ground. The sort of player Everitt should be aiming to become.

Best suited to HBF, bringing the ball out of defense through midfield zones but not opposed to the oppositions best forward. We would probably move Gilbee up the ground for Eagle to bring him in

I think you have summed this up well but for mine he is probably just not quite elite. He's capable of playing on some key positions players plus he's way too strong for most flankers.

[bornadog]

How good of a footballer is Brendon Goddard? Good, Very Good or Elite?

What position would you see him playing for us if he was one of our players?

I think he is a natural backman but I'm guessing he could just about anywhere.

I think he is a terrific player and can be a match winner running off the backline. He has good size, not tall, but strong, can run a bit and his disposal is also good. I rate him highly.

[Mantis]

I think he is elite. Terrific marking ability, fitness, kicking and a high possession getter, can play all over the ground. The sort of player Everitt should be aiming to become.

Best suited to HBF, bringing the ball out of defense through midfield zones but not opposed to the oppositions best forward. We would probably move Gilbee up the ground for Eagle to bring him in

How many players in the AFL do you rank as elite?

[GVGjr]

How many players in the AFL do you rank as elite?

I reckon he's close to elite, very close.

I'd probably think there is 20 elite players in the competition but that's a number just off the top of my head with not a lot of thought to it.

[Mofra]

I think he is a terrific player and can be a match winner running off the backline. He has good size, not tall, but strong, can run a bit and his disposal is also good. I rate him highly.

191cm is reasonably tall, especially for a guy with his running ability - that is close to Glass & Scarlett height, same as Pav & Fev, and taller than Morris.

He is one of the best rebounding defenders in the competition and his kicking is elite. I think the gamestyle of most clubs is starting to suit his game a bit more - winning the contested ball and kicking long to maintain possession.

[boydogs]

How many players in the AFL do you rank as elite?

I think making the current all australian team is a fair cutoff

[angelopetraglia]

Kicking ability is so important in the modern game. Absolutely crucial to pierce holes through tight cluster style defensive set ups.

There is no doubting his kicking ability. It is elite.

In my mind he is the best field kick in the league. He has the key attributes of great field kicking;

- Vision
- Decision making
- Penetration / Distance
- Speed (kicks it low and hard to get to a target in very fast time)
- Accuracy

Gilbee has very close actual kicking ability but in my mind not the same vision or decision making with the pill in his hands.

His ability to impact a game is enormous due to his kicking. We saw him first hand last year more than once hurt us.

He is elite.

[LostDoggy]

Brandon is on the cusp of being elite, I would say, having struggled with injury and consistency for a few years. He has always had the potential to be elite (top 5 in the comp type) and this year may be his true break out year.

He is certainly one of the more dangerous floaters out there, able to play in a number of positions and can be a consistent goalkicker.

Interestingly, even though he has been compared to Gilbee in this thread, the Saints don't use him as their primary rebounding ball carrier, instead relying on Fisher and Gilbert. Goddard seems to be more their 'open field' kicker and being groomed for a centreman role, much the same as Griffen, who I would liken him more to than Gilbee, especially in terms of physicality, explosiveness and aerobic capacity.

If playing for the Dogs, Goddard would essentially be a Griffen clone, and the posters on WOOF would be debating if either of them are really centremen or more effective as rebounding half-back flankers, and when they would reach their full potential as a top 3 draft pick.

[LostDoggy]

Goddard is the modern day equivalent of Mark Browning. Runs past somebody who has done the hard work taking a handball and kicking it a long way downfield.

When given a position in the backline to actually play on a specific opponent he is able to be exploited as Hahn showed in the Preliminary Final.

Suggested to Ray when he arrived at the St Kilda that the perception was he was not hard enough at it. What a joke coming from him.

[Mantis]

I think making the current all australian team is a fair cutoff

Personally I think that criteria is too broad.

Using just one player as an example I wouldn't call Goodwin an elite player at this point of his career.