Opinion
As a boy growing up in country Victoria with two older brothers keen on VFL football, we used to play a game where we called random numbers to each other and had to nominate either a Collingwood or VFL player who wore that number.
It didn’t have to be a current player, just someone we remembered wearing that number in whatever version of the game we were playing.
On rare occasions, we still partake in the game (generally after a few drinks) and I am fascinated by the numbers and the players I recall: No.6 at Collingwood is always Peter McKenna, No.29 is Denis O’Callaghan and No.44 is Shane Kerrison.
At AFL level, McKenna was still the most famous No.6 and he still holds the record for the most number of goals in that jumper.
My AFL No.10 was Carl Ditterich, the blond explosive St Kilda ruckman who burst on to the scene in 1963.
Ditterich’s total of 285 games in the No.10 jumper was recently passed by Richmond’s Shane Edwards meaning ‘Big Carl’ has now dropped to fifth on the list of famous No.10 jumper wearers.
Of course, first on the list is Collingwood’s record-setting captain Scott Pendlebury.
(Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images)
Three current-day players have put their jumper numbers well and truly in the spotlight by not only playing the most AFL games in their number, but also scoring more goals than anyone in the same jumper number.
Jack Riewoldt, Richmond’s star forward, has played over 300 games and kicked over 700 goals in the famous No.8 jumper.
He has also won the Tigers’ goal-kicking 11 times and the AFL goal-kicking three times, and he has played in three premierships.
Another full forward, Tom ‘Tomahawk’ Hawkins, arrived at Geelong under the father-son rule in 2006 and made his AFL debut in 2007.
He also has won the John Coleman Medal for the AFL’s leading goal kicker, he has been Geelong’s leading goal kicker on ten occasions and he was Geelong’s best and fairest in 2012.
(Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
Melbourne’s Ben Brown has not achieved quite as much as his two fellow dual-jumper record holders but can boast four leading-goal-kicker awards at North Melbourne, his former club, and the status of being a premiership player at his current club, Melbourne.
Unlike Riewoldt and Hawkins, Brown has represented two clubs but managed to retain the No.50 at both. It is hard to imagine that there was much competition for the number at the Demons.
Not always has a high profile player on the move to a new club been able to continue with the same number that he started his successful career with.
A case in point is Eddie Betts, recruited from Carlton to help Adelaide with their goal-kicking problems in 2014.
From his very first game at Carlton, Betts had always played in the No.19 jumper and returned to play his final two years at the Blues in 2020 and 2021 in the same number, amassing an impressive 330 goals in the jumper.
However, for some strange reason he was allocated the No.18 jumper at the Crows despite the fact that the No.19 jumper had not been worn in an AFL game since 2005 when Mark Stevens departed the club.
He was only the third player in the club history to don the navy blue, red and gold hoops with No.19 on the back.
David Cloke was able to wear his famous No.33 at Collingwood after his move from Richmond but on his return for his final two years at the Tigers, he found that Matthew Knights was well ensconced in the number and coincidentally Cloke had to settle for No.19.
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