Seeing his former St Kilda teammate Nick Dal Santo in North Melbourne colours has given Brendon Goddard a sense of how people felt when he crossed to Essendon as a free agent.
After 10 seasons shared together at the Saints in one of the club's most successful periods, Goddard and Dal Santo will cross paths on Friday night as ex-St Kilda stars – Goddard for the Bombers and Dal Santo in his first game for North Melbourne.
Goddard, who won the Bombers' best and fairest last year in his first season with the club, said he hasn't spoken to Dal Santo this week in the lead-up to the game and that he was still getting his head around the classy midfielder's move.
"I actually have to keep reminding myself that he plays for North Melbourne, so it's a bit weird even seeing his name there in the team meeting this morning," Goddard said on Thursday.
"It'll be a bit weird but I've experienced a little bit of that weirdness before coming up against my old team. We might even be on each other for parts of the game so that'll be a bit strange, but I'm looking forward to it."
Goddard left the Saints at the end of 2012 after 205 matches, and Dal Santo followed him as a last year after 260 games for St Kilda. Both were restricted free agents, meaning the Saints declined the option to match the rival bids.
After experiencing a new club first-hand, Goddard said seeing Dal Santo in the blue and white stripes offered him a perspective on how people might have viewed him when he joined the Bombers.
"It looked strange when I first saw him down there in his polo and promoting the footy club and talking about North. It probably gave me a sense of what other people felt when they saw me in the Essendon jumper or colours for the first time," he said.
Had things gone one way during last year's exchange period, Dal Santo and Goddard might have reunited as teammates.
Essendon met with the three-time All Australian as he assessed his football future, and Goddard was in constant contact as Dal Santo made a decision.
"Essendon was one of the options for him and we were keen to get his services and I knew what a quality player and person he is," Goddard said.
"I knew he was going to bring a lot to the footy club if we were able to get him. I didn't give him a sales pitch so to speak, but I spoke openly and honestly about where I thought we were at and he had a few questions for me.
"He obviously knew I had been through it before, and it was very similar circumstances to be honest."
Goddard will take on the Roos fit and healthy after a couple of injury interruptions during the pre-season. First came a calf strain and next some hamstring tightness, which kept him off the track for almost three weeks in January and February.
Looking back, he feels it has been "a blessing in disguise" after pushing himself up to that points.
"I actually trained as hard as I've ever trained before in terms of cross-training (during his time on the sidelines), and I lost a couple of kilos and skinfolds in about three weeks," he said.
"As much as it hurts my pride a bit, and I'm pretty stubborn, I probably don’t need to be doing full pre-seasons these days considering I've got 11 under my belt already and pretty solid foundations.
"I probably had two weeks off my legs where I let the body refresh a little bit. I did train a fair bit over summer and in my break, probably a bit too hard.
"I haven't felt like I missed too much [while injured] because I felt like I kept a high level of training when I was doing my cross-training and rehab."
