[3] He had previously visited the eastern state in 1904 when he toured with the Western Australian interstate football team.

Goddard, who was a centreman, performed well in his first season at South Melbourne but missed out on a place in their 1907 Grand Final team.

In 1909, having played in all of South Melbourne's pre-season practice games, yet not having been being selected to play, and "[having] seen a couple of the Carlton players who told him that he could get a game" and "[having seen] one of the committee, and [having] decided to apply for a clearance", Goddard took the extraordinary step of independently applying for an (unsolicited) clearance to Carlton.

Noting that, although South Melbourne had agreed to release Goddard – having informed Goddard "that he will not be selected in our team as we do not considered him good enough as a player" – it also noted that Jack Worrall stated that "This application has been made without the consent of my committee, and I further wish to state the committee do not desire the services of Mr.

Goddard played at back pocket in the 1910 Grand Final, in which Carlton lost to Collingwood by 14 points.