Goodes, who was held to just 18 touches by Brisbane Lions tagger Joel Patfull in the Swans’ 33-point loss on Saturday night, said he was up for the challenge of taking on the Blues’ champion.
“It’d be a great match-up if Carlton were to let it happen. I know we always push for it at the Swans, to go head to head with such a fantastic player,” he said as the Swans arrived back in Sydney on Sunday morning.
“You do love to play against the players that are just out and out ball winners because you know that if you’re in there winning the ball, they’re going to be in there trying to win the ball as well.
“It is such a good contest because he’s such a great player. You look at the impact he can have on the game and the impact you can have at the same time, and it really is a key battle.”
While Goodes will be renew his rivalry with Judd, he and his Swans teammates are desperate to atone for another inconsistent performance against the Lions.
He admitted some surprise at the Lions’ superior hardness at the contest at a sodden Gabba, given the Swans have placed such an emphasis on winning the stoppages in recent years.
“They just turned the heat up on us and they played the wet weather football better than what we did. They were harder, stronger at the contest and they had more blokes willing to do that for the four-quarter effort. We just didn’t have the weight of numbers and the guys to win the footy in close,” Goodes said.
“I would have thought in those conditions, we would have been really matched, if not [over] matched against the Lions in those areas: hardness, tackling, putting your body behind the football.
“That’s the most disappointing thing, looking back at the game, just to know that they really beat us in that area.”
There is likely to be at least one forced change against Carlton after Jared Crouch suffered a hamstring injury in the second term against the Lions.
But Goodes said veteran forward Michael O’Loughlin was still “a week or two” away and he would not be rushed into the side to increase the Swans’ forward firepower.
“Look, it’d be fantastic to have another option up in the forward line. He’s such a fantastic player and we are missing another target up there at the moment,” he said.
“[Mick’s] probably one or two weeks away and we don’t want to rush him back into the team just because we really need him. We want him to have a nice build-up preparation and hopefully get him back when he’s fully fit, not when he’s 80 per cent.”
