Brendon Goddard says the prime of his career was ‘wasted’ at Essendon due to the supplements saga that began after his move to the club.

Goddard moved to the Bombers on a four-year deal at the end of 2012 after 205 games and two All-Australian guernseys with St Kilda.

Essendon finished eighth on the AFL ladder in 2013 before being expelled from the finals series as the supplements saga began to take its toll on the club during Goddard’s 129-game tenure at the club.

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Round 18

“It was obviously a missed opportunity because of things outside of my control,” he said on Sportsday WA.

“I look back on it and essentially I was still in the prime of my career. I was 27 when I left St Kilda and we had our struggles in 2012 at the Saints, but I was physically and mentally in the best shape of my life.

“(My first year at Essendon) went really well. I could see the vision that James Hird and Mark Thompson and David Evans had kind of painted for me when I was talking to them to come across and the promises they made, it was all coming to fruition.

“Obviously it then all blew up in our face. I see it as a real missed opportunity and selfishly, I essentially wasted four years of my career because of the restraints we had and the mental state everyone at the footy club was in … you weren’t in a place to be able to perform at your best or consistently enough to compete at AFL level.”

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Still, despite the extreme challenges presented to Goddard and the Bombers, the 34-year-old still appreciates the resilience shown by the on-field side in the face of one of footy’s darkest periods.

“I’ve said it time and time again, footy is hard enough to get yourself up for and play consistently well without all these external pressures going on,” he said.

“So I guess what we achieved at the time was still impressive considering the situation really.”