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In my recent article, AFL top 100: Round 2 review, I mentioned that in the AFL and at both Port Adelaide and St Kilda there was tight competition in regard to who would be the most successful goal scorer in each group at the end of the year.
I forgot to mention the tight competition at Adelaide as well. Whilst “Tex” Walker appears to have the ‘numero uno’ current goal kicker position tied up, the battle is very on between Eddie Betts and Josh Jenkins to stitch up the number two position.
Both players passed Andrew McLeod’s goal total last week and sit tied equal fourth on the Crows’ top 100 goalkickers list on 276 goals.
For the Crows to make the finals both players would need to have their sights on kicking 300 goals by the end of the year, and – if they achieve this target – it would take them past number three on Adelaide’s top 100 goal scorer’s list, Mark Ricciuto.
Adelaide features in the Thursday night game this week against the in-form Geelong and David Mackay should join Nathan van Berlo on 205 games. Van Berlo was born in Perth to New Zealand parents and captained the Crows for four years from 2011 to 2014.
For Geelong, Mitch Duncan will equal the games tally of two of the club’s favourite sons: Bernie Smith and John Scarlett. Both Smith and Scarlett played their first games at 20 years of age and played 11 seasons.
Smith played with the Cats during the 1940s and 1950s and had an outstanding career. In 1951 he won the Brownlow Medal, Geelong’s Best and Fairest and played in a premiership. The following year he played in another premiership and went on to captain the club in 1954 and win his second Best and Fairest in 1956.
John Scarlett played at fullback for the Cats in the ’60s and ’70s but – after 11 seasons and 183 games – moved on to the Swans for another two seasons and another 29 games. His son Matthew also was a determined back man for the club who sits in the seventh position on the Cats’ list of top 100 game players.
Friday night’s game will be a desperate affair with both Melbourne and Essendon keen to get their seasons back on track with their first win. For Essendon, David Zaharakis (the most experienced player at the Bombers) will equal the game feats of Michael Long, a hero in the Bombers’ 1993 premiership and again in 2000. Long is now a spokesman for the Indigenous people.
At Melbourne, Tom McDonald will join ex-players Lance Arnold and Andrew Obst on 149 games and move into the Demons’ top 60 game players of all time. Arnold was recruited from Mildura in 1946 and played at centre half forward in Melbourne’s 1948 premiership, winning the club’s goalkicking in the same year.
Andrew Obst came from Port Adelaide in the SANFL and returned to finish his career there after his eight-year stint as a tagger and centreman at the Demons. Although he played in seven finals for the club between 1990 and 1997, he suffered a number of injuries and never won any silverware.
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