Goddard, who has been instrumental in helping St Kilda gain a preliminary final berth this season, said maturity was also a factor for his game rising to another level in 2008.
"I reckon a lot of it has been due to mental preparation. As you get older, you get into a routine and you find ways of working things out mentally," Goddard told saints.com.au.
"I probably struggled with that early, but mentally, it took me a while to get a handle on it. That's the main thing, mental preparation.
"'Harvs' [Robert Harvey] really preaches it and he's the key to consistent footy. [It's] not so much with results, but with consistent effort and that's where I struggled in my first three years – it was up and down.
"I really learned a lot coming off a knee. There were a lot of hard yards in the gym by yourself and you just really learn a lot through that period."
Goddard missed the first two matches of the season, after coming back from the knee injury, which sidelined him after round seven last year.
But he has since had his best AFL season, highlighted by career-best disposals and top 10 league finishes in kicks, effective kicks, long kicks, loose ball gets, uncontested marks and rebound 50s.
He said it was tough coming back at the highest level from a serious knee injury.
"[People] don't understand until they do one. A lot is said about blokes coming off knee injuries and it can be a way of using excuses for bad performances, but I've never tried to do that," Goddard said.
"Blokes and teams wouldn't play the players if they weren't ready to play, so my whole attitude has been: 'I've done the work and everything possible to get myself to this point and back in the team'.
"If anything had happened from my first game back, I can't control that. So I put it all behind me and you obviously get thoughts about what happens, if I do my knee again.
"Mentally, I'd seen myself doing my knee again coming up to my first game and even in the first half of the year. But the good thing is that I've accepted it and acknowledged it and kept reminding myself that I can't control that. I've been prepared and done the work."
