BRENDON Goddard has backed James Hird to continue at Essendon despite the threat of player bans, saying “we play for the coach”.

In an exclusive interview, Goddard said Hird’s return from a year-long suspension late last season helped provide much-needed comfort for the playing group “regardless of the circumstances”.

“The day he came back, it just felt right. It just felt comfortable,” Goddard said.

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The Bombers’ vice-captain remained angry about the penalty that removed Essendon from the 2013 finals race and said the missed experienced severely inhibited them in their elimination final loss to North Melbourne last year.

“I truly believe that had we played the year before, we would not have lost that game (against the Roos),” he said.

media_camera Brendon Goddard says the players are sticking by their coach James Hird. Picture: Martin Reddy

But Goddard, 29, was adamant the players could yet write one of the most extraordinary chapters in the game’s history and overcome the saga with a premiership triumph.

“As I keep saying to the boys, when we come out of this and we win a Grand Final, they will make a movie and write books about us,” he said.

Hird’s future could rest on an AFL Anti-Doping tribunal verdict, due later this month.

Eighteen current Bombers’ players face bans of up to two years.

But Goddard said Hird was the man to lead the club.

“Hirdy has a great rapport with the players and it comes down to each individual, and it (relationships) may be damaged for some people based on what may happen,” Goddard said.

“But we play footy for ‘Hirdy’. We play for the coach.

“He (Hird) said to me in a chat very early on, catching up outside of the club, that he’s never been more dedicated in his playing career than what he is now to be successful as a club, as a coach and as a team.”

Goddard opened up on his admiration for his Essendon teammates, who been heavily weighed down since the drugs bombshell in 2013.

Essendon was booted from the 2013 finals, stripped of three first and second-round draft picks and fined $2 million, the heftiest penalty in the game’s history.

Goddard said the finals ban was the reason they “got caught like deer in headlights” when the Bombers’ surrendered a 32-point lead in their elimination final loss to North Melbourne last year.

“I’m still angry about the year before because I believe the group deserved it (to play finals),” Goddard said.

“History shows you have got to build a premiership, so to speak, and that was an important step in our development as a team to play finals footy and last year we missed out on that, one of your most important experiences in your footy life.

“So I put it down to experience. The guys were sensational for a half, but I think we just got caught like deer in headlights.

“We got a bit caught up in the moment and what to do, and what they shouldn’t do … but to their (North’s) credit they changed the way they played.”