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Essendon no doubt will be relying on a fit, healthy and in-form Joe Daniher to enhance the club’s already good prospects of playing finals in 2019.
Daniher, already the equal 28th greatest goal scorer for the Bombers, is a potential 60-70 goalkicker in a season and could find himself inside the top 20 goal scorers of all time for the Dons by the end of next season at the tender age of 25.
A slightly younger Orazio Fantasia will be 24 by the end of next season and also has an important role to play as a goal scorer. Moving into the top 100 goal scorers this year and rising to equal 90th, he joined David Zaharakis (#56) and Michael Hurley (#68) in Essendon’s top 100. They should be joined by Carl Hooker who is only one goal away from top 100 status.
Despite Daniel Menzel (2018) and Steven Motlop (2017) no longer being at the club, the Cats still have plenty of firepower to keep them in the mix for a finals berth next year. The big ‘gun’ of course is Tom Hawkins who should score 60-odd goals again in 2019 and – although it will make little impression on the top two goalkickers at the club – it should see him move from top 60 to top 50 on the AFL list.
The other four goal scorers on the list are all key players (Gary Ablett, Joel Selwood, Mitch Duncan and Patrick Dangerfield) and all would be expected to contribute a significant number of goals during the year and move up from their current positions of equal 20th, 49th, 62nd and 86th respectively.
To make the top 100 all-time goal kickers at Greater Western Sydney and Gold Coast Suns is relatively simple for an AFL footballer; all you have to do is a kick a goal in a league game and you are on the list! Neither side has been around long enough to have 100 goal scorers and I imagine their top 100 goal kicking list would be very similar to those of the foundation clubs back in the early part of the 20th century.
No doubt the four new recruits George Horlin-Smith, Jack Hombsch, Corey Ellis and Anthony Miles will be keen to add their names to the 91 goalkickers at the Gold Coast Suns so far.
Mind you, they will have to play at least three games to clear the games played bar and make the top 100 games played list. The bar was established this year and Nathan Ablett, Joel Tippett, Mark Lock and Leigh Osborne became the first players excluded from the Suns’ top 100 game players list.
No such problems exist at Greater Western Sydney where there is still room for nine-game players and 24 goalkickers before the lists are full. The ‘gun’ forward Tom Lynch has left GWS this season and so have three of the other top ten goal scorers at the Giants and whilst it is easy to imagine these other three dropping down the list quickly if the Giants have another successful year, Tom Lynch is likely to remain the top goal scorer at the club for many years to come.
I would predict he will still be a top 100 goal scorer at the end of the 21st century.
Before I finish my review of the fledging clubs, I would like to point out the unique game record held by now Gold Coast player Jack Hombsch. Despite having played only 98 games of AFL football for premiership points, he now holds the record for the most number of venues played at by any player in VFL/AFL history.
This record will be extended even further (to 21) if he is picked to play for the Suns in their match at Townsville.
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