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Last Friday night I was nestled in front of the TV to watch the opening game of the AFL season between Collingwood and Fremantle.
It wasn’t long before I saw the Dockers butcher three set shots in front of goal.
Chris Mayne was twice the culprit, pushing the ball well right on each occasion, once from an angle slightly off centre and once 35 metres out from goal.
Skipper Matthew Pavlich was the other to squander an opportunity, although his was far more glaring than Mayne’s efforts. From the same distance he managed to register a minor score having missed the right behind post by less than two metres.
At the time I shook my head. The roof at Etihad Stadium was closed thus giving the players the most perfect conditions to shoot on goal.
There is no doubting that the skills within the game at the elite level have risen over the past 25 years as the sport has become truly professional.
Nowadays every player, if he chooses, can get by on his football salary alone.
Secondary employment is primarily a choice rather than a necessity.
We continue to hear coaches and players talk about the thorough professionalism that exists at AFL level nowadays.
We hear how dedicated they all are and how intense the training regimen is.
Yet, in the area of goal scoring, have we actually seen an improvement in this now fully professional era?
I decided to do a little homework and a quick glance at the raw statistics would seem to suggest not.
I looked at two groups of key-position forwards – one from 1961 to 1990 and the other from 2000 to the current day.
The results were illuminating when comparing the conversion percentage of goals compared to behinds.
Firstly, here is the way the old timers stacked up:
| Player | Years Active | Career Goals | Conversion per cent |
| Peter Hudson | 1967-77 | 727 | 69 |
| Michael Roach | 1977-89 | 607 | 67 |
| Peter McKenna | 1965-77 | 874 | 66 |
| Kelvin Templeton | 1974-85 | 593 | 64 |
| Simon Beasley | 1982-89 | 575 | 64 |
| Michael Moncrieff | 1971-83 | 629 | 63 |
| Brian Taylor | 1980-90 | 527 | 63 |
| Ross Glendinning | 1978-88 | 325 | 61 |
| Doug Wade | 1961-75 | 1057 | 60 |
| Royce Hart | 1967-77 | 369 | 59 |
| Bernie Quinlan | 1969-86 | 817 | 58 |
The current day players look like this:
| Player | Years Active | Goals | Conversion Per Cent |
| Jarrod Roughead | 2005- | 366 | 64 |
| Jonathan Brown | 2000- | 573 | 64 |
| Jack Riewoldt | 2007- | 320 | 63 |
| Matthew Pavlich | 2000- | 583 | 62 |
| Drew Petrie | 2001- | 366 | 62 |
| Nick Riewoldt | 2001- | 570 | 60 |
| Kurt Tippett | 2008- | 223 | 59 |
| Lance Franklin | 2005- | 580 | 58 |
| Quinten Lynch | 2002- | 290 | 56 |
| Travis Cloke | 2005- | 351 | 55 |
On face value, there is very little difference between either group.
Now, it is difficult of course to determine just how many of the goals scored were a result of a mark or free-kick and thus a set shot, as opposed to those scored in general play.
But several things are definitely quantifiable.
Firstly, there is the state of the grounds on which players of the current era get to ply their trade.
Gone are the oft seen mud heaps of the pre-1990s; grounds like Moorabbin, Windy Hill, Glenferrie and the Western Oval were often quagmires.
Nowadays you are pretty hard pressed to see a player after four quarters with any mud on his body, especially those playing up forward.
Pre-1990 when drainage was virtually non-existent, pools of casual water dotting the grounds were not uncommon.
The other significant difference has been the use of Etihad Stadium, or Docklands as it is often referred to.
Almost 650 games have been played at the venue with many taking part beneath a closed roof. In fact nowadays it is very much de rigueur.
Nick Riewoldt has played a total of 136 matches at the stadium although his conversion rate there is only 62 per cent.
Petrie has turned out in 114 matches at the ground for a strike rate of 65 per cent.
Of the current day players listed above, Roughead has the best conversion rate of 69 per cent at Etihad from 34 appearances – Franklin’s is 58 per cent, Brown’s 57 per cent and Cloke’s 55 per cent.
One wonders how the likes of Hudson, McKenna and Roach would have fared in such a pristine environment.
It begs the question as to whether the modern day footballer spends as much time working on his goal kicking as those that preceded them.
Just as pace bowlers in cricket are monitored nowadays as to their workload, so too are footballers.
I have heard stories of people in the conditioning departments at AFL clubs cutting down on the time players practice shooting on goal so as to protect the ‘load on their leg muscles’.
Perhaps they would be best served remembering what it is that wins matches – simply kicking more goals than your opponents.
Fremantle lost to Hawthorn in last year’s grand final by 15 points.
It was a match where the Dockers burned umpteen opportunities in front of goal, some of them almost comically.
Goals win matches, pure and simple.
Nowadays players are faster, stronger, bigger and better prepared all-round, or so we are told.
Yet in essence the players of today, despite being fully professional, are seemingly no better at converting in front of goal than their counterparts of three or four decades ago.
It is a strange quirk of the modern game.
One can only wonder if we will see it change over time.