Western Bulldogs pick up Brett Goodes, the brother of dual Brownlow Medallist Adam, at the pre-season and rookie draft.
Brett Goodes, brother of superstar Swan Adam Goodes, is now a Bulldog. Picture: Michael Klein. Source: Herald Sun
REMINDED that people love a fairytale, Brett Goodes chuckles. "I suppose that's what some people are calling it," he says.
"Yeah, I suppose that's what some people are calling it," Goodes said yesterday.
The 28-year-old journeyman has copped enough knockbacks and years of being ignored by the top level to know it's much less magical than that.
"You look back at it and a lot of the people you played footy with didn't persevere," Goodes said. "So I suppose it's a great reward for a lot of hard work. I think it can be a bit of a right place, right time industry. I think in this case it's certainly one of those situations."
A dream Goodes had given up on long ago became a reality yesterday when the Western Bulldogs plucked him with its sole pick in the rookie draft.
"I was pretty excited just to tell some family members who know how hard it's been over the years to finally get an opportunity," he said.
A brother of Sydney superstar Adam, Goodes' road to the AFL has been a long one.
He started with North Ballarat Rebels in the TAC Cup, spent a year at Port Adelaide in the SANFL, went to VFL club North Ballarat Roosters, trained with North Melbourne, went back to North Ballarat and travelled to Darwin to work for AFL NT and play at the NT Thunder.
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In a story eerily similar to James Podsiadly at Geelong, Goodes had been employed by the Dogs since last year as their player wellbeing manager while playing VFL with Williamstown.
But that job description started to change on the Dogs' trip to London for last month's exhibition game.
"I had a brief, informal, chat with Macca (coach Brendan McCartney) in London and he just said, 'Have you ever thought about maybe having a run around with us?'," he said.
"I was a little bit shocked but I just thought, 'What do I have to lose?' It was a win-win situation.
"I'm out on the track a bit anyway in my role, and as long as the players and coaches were happy for me to do it, I was happy.
"It all eventuated ... I had a good two weeks and I think they were surprised with how well I was testing and then it all started to become a bit more real."
A running defender with excellent foot skills, Goodes will add aggression to the Dogs' back half after a VFL season in which he won state honours and a place in the team of the year.
He beat former Essendon midfielder Brent Prismall to the rookie spot. It emerged last night Prismall was under consideration for Goodes' player welfare position.
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