Former Essendon star Brendon Goddard says many of his ex-teammates who were involved in the club's supplements scandal are "scarred for life".
After 205 games at St Kilda, Goddard joined Essendon as a free agent in the summer of 2012, unknowingly walking into what became one of Australian sport's biggest scandals.
34 Essendon players, both past and present, were suspended for 12 months in 2016, but Goddard was left wondering why it took so long for the case to be finalised.
"It's staggering when you go back and think about what happened at the time and how long it dragged out," he told SEN.
"When I look back on it, it destroyed a number of men.
"We know about Hirdy (James Hird) and his struggles, but there's some guys out there that were fighting at the time and it probably had a long term effect on them mentally that we probably didn't know about, because they were hiding it and didn't want to talk about it.
"Don't worry about the footy club, the footy will bounce back because of the supporters and its rich history of success, but a lot of the individuals that were involved have been scarred for life."
Despite walking head-first into the scandal, Goddard stayed true to the Bombers, playing another 129 games for the club before retiring at the end of 2018.
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