Australian International Rules coach Chris Scott has confirmed Essendon’s Brendon Goddard will be the goalkeeper for the upcoming games against Ireland in Adelaide and Perth.
He will follow in the footsteps of former Bomber Dustin Fletcher who kept in five series for Australia, and was widely regarded as the best keeper in the series.
The Geelong mentor said they will be looking to use Goddard as an extra defender by getting him heavily involved in the game, and are intending to play an exciting style of footy.
“Brendon Goddard’s drawn the short straw,” Scott said on SEN Breakfast.
“It would be a big trap for us to try and play the way the Irish do, one of the advantages of having a guy like Brendon Goddard behind the ball is he’s played the game before and he’s really smart.
“We’ll try and get our goalkeeper involved a little bit, we’ll play an attacking brand of footy and look to score, which might leave us a little bit vulnerable defensively, but I think that’s what the fans want to see, guys like BJ heavily involved in the game.”
The squad will only come together for the first time on the Thursday prior to the opening game, and while Scott admitted this was a challenge, he has backed in the quality of players at his disposal to offset any potential issues.
“We are cognisant to the fact that it’s the players off-season, and given we are playing the two games this year, we wanted to keep it pretty tight,” he said.
“It’s coaching 101, that when you’ve got really good players you put them in positions where they play their best footy…the most important thing is we don’t complicate it.
“We will give them a very simple formula to follow.”
Australia takes on Ireland at Adelaide Oval on Sunday November 12, and Domain Stadium on Saturday November 18.
Squad: Eddie Betts, Rory Laird, Rory Sloane, Dayne Zorko, Kade Simpson, Scott Pendlebury, Brendon Goddard, Zach Merrett, Nat Fyfe, Gary Ablett, Patrick Dangerfield, Joel Selwood, Shaun Burgoyne, Jack Gunston, Michael Hibberd, Neville Jetta, Robbie Tarrant, Ben Brown, Travis Boak, Paddy Ryder, Chad Wingard, Luke Shuey