LAST YEAR was an eye-opener Brendon Goddard, in more ways than one.

Less than two weeks into 2016, the Essendon midfielder saw 12 of his teammates banned for the season in unprecedented circumstances.

He was quickly named the stand-in captain of the club but just as swiftly had to put all hopes and expectations for the season aside.

"It was the first time I'd gone into a season not expecting to play finals," Goddard told the AFL Record in the lead-up to his 300th game.

But a little over two months later, Goddard gained a new perspective, of a grander scale away from the game. He and wife Rosie had their first child, daughter Billie. Coupling her arrival with a sense of "no-pressure football" for the first time in his distinguished career gave Goddard a different appreciation of the game and its place.

"Being a father for the first time definitely helped with that," he said. "It was a pretty big year of change in my life and my wife's life.

"I learnt a lot from a footy point of view as well with it being such a young group at the club and being captain and having no expectations of results. That was one thing to get my head around and it was tough and strange, but once I did that I found it relatively easy to play footy, regardless of whether we won or lost.

"I really worked on trying to focus on the positive things with where we're at and that benefited me with my footy and my mind to stay refreshed and motivated."

Goddard's change was not a dropping of standards but a relaxing of mood. He has been renowned as one of the competition's most fierce competitors for over a decade.

His track record as a big game player and finals star in his previous football life at St Kilda speaks for itself. Crossing to Essendon, winning a best and fairest and also helping steer what has been a rocky ship throughout his time at the club deserves credit.

On Saturday night, when Essendon takes on Greater Western Sydney at Spotless Stadium, he will become just the 80th player in VFL/AFL history to reach 300 games, but he doesn't expect the significance of the night to dawn on him until after it's done.

"In the back of my head I try to tell myself it's not that important because we just think about playing and performing and all of that," he said. "But the 300th is probably a bit different to the other milestones.

"It is weird that in your own head you keep telling yourself it's just another game but consciously I've been trying to remind myself it's not really just another game because it is a big milestone.

"It reflects the way I've prepared and the way I've trained. I've been lucky to be relatively injury free. Apart from that ACL (Goddard needed a knee reconstruction in 2007), I haven't missed a lot of footy through injuries, even soft-tissue, so I've been pretty lucky in that respect. I've escaped broken bones and that type of thing so it's been good."

Leaving the Saints at the end of 2012 and being the first high-profile player to change clubs via the AFL's free agency system was Goddard's biggest football decision. But with his 100th game in the red and black in sight, Goddard says it will be hard for him to know if he ends his career feeling more like a Saint or a Bomber.

"I have to respect the days I played at St Kilda, but I think because I'll finish up an Essendon player, initially that will be the sense that I get because it's fresh in my mind and everyone's mind that I was a Bomber the day I finished up," he said.

"As time goes on, without sounding too disrespectful, I'll probably see myself more as a 'Sainter' when I look back and reflect on my career. I played 205 games with St Kilda, but in saying that I'm hoping I've still got a few more years left in me at the Bombers."