Opinion
With the season now half completed it is time to look at the individual achievements of the top 100 game players and goal scorers at the 18 clubs.
Every club has a player who has achieved enhanced status due to his longevity at the club or his significant goal scoring skills. At Adelaide, Tex Walker had already overtaken Tony Modra to become the club’s greatest goalkicker by one goal, but this year he started the season in outstanding form, kicking 20 goals in the first four games and he has ensured he will be an invitee to any top 100 functions for many, many years to come.
The other Tom Lynch has not had as good a season, but his goal in the first round took him to equal with former champion Tyson Edwards and his goal in Round 5 means that he is currently the tenth-greatest goal scorer at the Crows. In games played, David Mackay has passed Michael Doughty to achieve top-ten status.
At Brisbane, two great servants of the club have advanced up the list. Dayne Zorko passed hybrid player (players who started at the Brisbane Bear and continued their careers at the Lions) Justin Leppitsch to be ninth on the combined goalkickers list which includes all goals kicked by both Bears and Lions players. He kicked his 200th goal in this round. Justin Leppitsch was also the loser on the games played list, this time being overtaken by Daniel Rich who climbed into the top-ten game players at Brisbane.
Carlton’s Marc Murphy continued his climb up the ladder of games played at the club, passing Justin Madden to become the sixth-greatest player of all time at the club. He also climbed into the top 100 AFL game players of all time, but more on that later. Harry McKay – in only his fifth year at the Blues – has not only become a top 100 goalkicker at the club which has the highest entry bar in the AFL, but also passed the century of goals and is already equal 80th with 1990 players Earl Spalding and Brent Heaver.
At Collingwood, Scott Pendlebury had climbed in 2020 to the number one position, passing Tony Shaw as the club’s top game player of all time, and has now put a significant distance between himself and the other champions who played for the Magpies. Meanwhile, Steele Sidebottom is only one game away from joining Gavin Brown as a top-ten game player at Collingwood. Amongst the goalkickers, Pendlebury is still the top current player, but Jordan de Goey is only one goal away from a career total of 150.
At Essendon, the exciting Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti has taken over the mantel of the greatest current goal scorer at the Bombers, replacing David Zaharakis who gained it with the defection of Joe Daniher to Brisbane. Cale Hooker joined the 100 career goals club and McDonald-Tipungwuti passed the 100 consecutive games total, only the second current player to achieve it behind the remarkable Jack Crisp at Collingwood who has now passed the 150 game mark – the 14th greatest of all time in VFL/AFL history.
It is certainly touch-and-go whether Fremantle’s David Mundy – playing some of his best football still, will overtake the absolute champion Docker Matthew Pavlich who retired five years ago. With 11 rounds left, Mundy needs to play all 11 games to take outright ownership of the greatest game player at the Dockers. He may have some finals to add to the total, but that still appears unlikely. One thing is for sure, he and no one else currently playing at the Dockers is likely to unseat Pavlich as the club’s greatest goal scorer.
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