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The cream rose to the top in terms of the main goal kickers in each game in the middle three games of Round 8.
In the Melbourne vs Gold Coast game Tom McDonald celebrated his recent entry into Melbourne’s top 100 game-players by booting five goals in his re-emergence as a key forward. However, that brought his tally of goals for Melbourne to only 40 – to make the top 100 goal-kickers at the club and therefore gain the ‘double’ of games and goals in the one year he would need to average somewhere between 1.75 and two goals per game, every game, for the remainder of the season.
Jesse Hogan, one of the only three current Demons in the top 100 goal-kickers at the club, kicked three goals. As part of the ‘trifecta’ of current players who occupy positions 59 to 61, he increased his lead over current teammates Jeff Garlett and Nathan Jones and is sneaking closer to Geoff Tunbridge and Colin Sylvia, the two just ahead on the ladder.
For Gold Coast Suns, Jack Martin booted four, which was not quite enough to overtake Aaron Hall or Sam Day, who both managed goals as well.
Port Adelaide scored a dramatic last-minute five-point win in the showdown match against Adelaide courtesy Steven Motlop. The goal-kicking star of the show was Robbie Gray, who kicked six goals. He remains fourth on the Power’s all-time top 100 goal-kicking list, but now he and Justin Westoff, number three on the list, must both be eying off second spot currently held by the retired Jay Schulz.
(Mark Brake/Getty Images)
For their opponents, Adelaide, both Eddie Betts and Taylor Walker featured prominently. Eddie kicked three goals to take himself past the 250-goal milestone with Adelaide as well as 1940s star full forward for Geelong (and, briefly, for South Melbourne), Lindsay White. Eddie’s all-up total of 542 goals now places him in 49th position on the AFL all-time top 100 goal-kickers list.
Walker’s two goals took his overall tally to 374 goals, so with 14 games plus finals remaining, he would do well to order his suit for the AFL top 100 big bash at the end of the season – he needs only 15 goals to cross the bar.
In the Brisbane and Western Bulldogs game it was the absolute stars that delivered, with both Dayne Zorko and Marcus Bontempelli kicking four goals. Zorko already appears in the Lions’ top-ten goal-scorers but is only 26th at the club for the number of games played. As he is not yet 30, his climb up both top 100 lists would appear assured.
It’s a similar story with Marcus Bontempelli. He has yet to play 100 games for the Bulldogs so won’t be appearing on the Western Bulldogs Top t00 game-players until well into the 2019 season.
His four goals on Saturday caused him to pass current teammate Liam Picken, who is out of the picture with the long-term effects of his last concussion. He also passed ex-teammate Matthew Boyd, Merv Laffey and Graham Ion and now sits in 63rd position among the club’s greatest 100 goal kickers. Laffey was a local boy whose career started in 1945 and he played as a rover, averaging more than one goal per game.
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