Opinion
The 20220 AFL season saw the final chapters in a number of champion careers and recently Geelong champion and captain of the 2022 premiership team, Joel Selwood, became the third AFL Top 100 game player to announce his retirement.
He joined fellow Top 100 elites David Mundy (Fremantle) (Number 8 on the all time list, with 376 games) and Shane Edwards (Richmond) (Equal 81st on the list with Patrick Dangerfield on 303 games).
There may be others who announce their retirements in the days to come, but there is no doubt we have been fortunate to enjoy the talents of the 10 players who were Top 100 champions during 2022.
Co-incidentally, there is every chance that three players will become eligible to join the Top 100 game players during season 2023. Obviously they will need to play on and not be prevented from reaching the required total by injury or loss of form:
Todd Goldstein, the North Melbourne stalwart, is already 34 years old and has been at the Kangaroos since 2008 but needs only two games more of senior football to join the only two members on the Top 100 list to not have played 300 games: Lenny Hayes (St Kilda) and Wayne Campbell (Richmond) who sit together in the “hot seat” on 297 games.
Goldstein has not yet appeared on any retirement lists and it would appear he is still part of new coach Alistair Clarkson’s plans for 2023.
As soon as one of Todd Goldstein or the two other possibilities (Steele Sidebottom – Collingwood or Trent Cotchin – Richmond) reaches 300 games that will be the “hot seat” and the “bar” for entry on to the AFL Top 100 game player’s list.
And so it will remain for some time as ten players ended their career on exactly 300 games and it will be some years before enough players play enough games to move then off the list.
Sidebottom has played 289 games, and Cotchin – who has already signed to play on next year – has played 287.
A further co-incidence is that the AFL Top 100 goal scorers list also includes 10 players who played this season.
Of these however, only one is likely to be missing next season: West Coast Eagle (and former Blue) Josh Kennedy. Kennedy (who like his namesake Josh Kennedy from Sydney) fell just short of making the AFL Top 100 game player’s list, finished his career with 723 goals in 22nd place on the all-time goal scorers list.
He is one of only two players who leads the all time goal scoring record at his current club.
However, the situation is different in the “games played” category where the leading game player at the club was still there at the end of the 2022 season at seven different clubs.
This highlights the fact that more opportunities exist these days for players to enhance their playing careers.
With more teams, more players, more games, better medical facilities and player management the modern day footballer should continue to push the games played records higher.
However that doesn’t necessarily mean that the club Top 100 game lists will anytime soon be full of players born this century.
Older starting ages, world wide competition for places, higher player demands and the evolution of the ‘meat market’ has meant that Carlton, for example, had only one Top 100 game player play during 2022 (due in part by a ‘no show” by Ed Curnow) whilst Essendon had three which included a one game cameo from Michael Hurley.
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