Glencoe Murphies full forward Brodie ‘Fossil’ Foster becomes the first player in South Australia to kick 100 goals in 2019
Thanks to a monster 13-goal haul in the wet on Saturday, a chippy from the South-East has come from the heavens to become the first senior SA footballer to hit the magical 100-goal mark for season 2019. See the video of the goal and celebration.
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Brodie Foster — nicknamed “Fossil” by his teammates — went in to the round 16 A grade clash with Mid South Eastern Football League rival Kongorong sitting on 87 goals, well-adrift of triple-figures.
The task of reaching the mythical milestone in one hit was made even more substantial given he’d kicked just one goal (from 13 shots) in Glencoe’s previous encounter with seventh-placed Kongorong earlier in the season.
“I didn’t have my kicking boot on that day,” Foster said with a laugh.
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Despite intermittent rain; a mud-soaked oval and wind-gusts of up to 61 kilometres per hour at points during Saturday’s match, Foster kicked his 13th goal of the afternoon late in the final quarter of Glencoe’s 154-point win.
“I definitely didn’t think I was going to get it because of the way the weather was,” said Foster.
“I just thought maybe if I get six for the game and then leave myself with seven for the next two.”
Foster had kicked six goals after the first two quarters, and told fellow key-forward Alex Hentschke at the time that he might be a chance to get to 13.
But Foster only managed only one in the third term, leaving him with the unlikely task of kicking six in the final stanza.
“I thought it might not happen this week it might be next week,” he said.
“Then Hentschke marked two in the goalsquare — I ran past and he flicked them off so I got two cheap ones there.
“Everyone started looking for me, I got some good delivery and ended up kicking four more.”
Remarkably, Foster’s final goal of the day — his 100th for the season — came with his right kicking-boot hanging off his foot.
“I was trying to put my boot back on because the heel of it got trodden on and I couldn’t really flick it off.
“I just went back anyway and kicked it with the back heel tucked in.
“It wasn’t on properly. It would’ve taken too long to do it.”
The clutch set-shot from tight on the right-hand boundary topped off a remarkable afternoon in Glencoe — a regional town situated 25 kilometres north-west of Mount Gambier.
“It was over-the-world the feeling. It was pretty hard to explain. It was nearly the same as winning a grand final, I reckon,” the humble Foster said, with the emotion of the event still clearly evident.
“I didn’t set myself a target of how high. It was just as long as I kick goals each week to help the team.
“As long as we kept winning games of footy then it didn’t really matter who was kicking goals, but obviously it went my way a fair bit.”
The 26-year-old carpenter attributes his personal success this season to the birth of his first child seven weeks ago.
Foster and his partner, Tricia Hutchesson, fortuitously welcomed their daughter Mackenzie to the world on the Friday immediately before Glencoe’s Saturday clash with winless Nangwarry on June 22nd; a game in which Foster kicked 10 goals to break a run of “just” the nine majors in the three games leading up.
“If I hadn’t played that day I probably wouldn’t be here,” Foster chuckled.
Prior to this year, the Mount Gambier local had spent the majority of his career as a second forward for country clubs South Gambier and Penola.
His previous career-high of 63 goals in a season came only after an injury to Penola’s primary forward target Adam Merrett, whose 262 total goals in 2013 and 2014 live in country footy folklore.
Foster is the first Glencoe footballer to break the ton since the club’s legendary goalkicker Neil Nankivell did the same nearly 25 years ago to the day.
The Murphies — nicknamed as a nod to the Irish background of the local potato-growers — were unable to make the 1994 grand final despite Nankivell’s fabled feats, an aberration not lost on Foster.
“I’m not sure how high I can get. I’ll just keep trying to win the next two and then win the finals,” Foster said of his aspirations for the remainder of the year.
Glencoe haven’t won an A grade premiership since 2007 and haven’t played in a senior grand final at any level since 2013.
With two rounds left in the 2019 regular season they’re sitting in third place on the ladder behind reigning-premier Robe and one-loss Hatherleigh, but Foster is giving his team every chance.
“I’m pretty confident we can go the whole way the way we’ve been playing the last three weeks,” Foster said.
“It doesn’t matter where we finish. We should still be able to have a solid crack.”
Before the weekend’s heroics the Glencoe star was sitting well behind statewide goals leader James Moss, who has kicked 94 for Mypolonga in the River Murray Football League.
Mypolonga had an ill-timed bye last week, but Moss will get the opportunity to join Foster in the 100-club this weekend. His Tigers take on the second-bottom Tailem Bend Eagles; a team which the former Adelaide Crows listed forward has already kicked 16 against in two games so far this season.
Western United’s Jarden Stoetzer had the chance to reach the ton last weekend, but could only manage five against Koonibba to take his season tally to 96.
With the Tigers finishing on top of the Far West Football League’s four-team ladder, Stoetzer will have to wait two weeks before he gets another crack at the century in the 2nd semi-final.
Shane Moss from Balaklava in the Adelaide Plains League has kicked 32 goals in his last two games (including 21 against Hamley Bridge two weeks ago) to soar up to fourth place on the leaderboard with 92 goals. Balaklava take on the Hummocks Watchman Eagles this weekend.
Closer to the CBD, Pulteney’s Jesse Whinnan was held to just the one major in his team’s narrow 8-point victory over fellow Adelaide Footy League C5 powerhouse Hope Valley.
In the same game, Hope Valley’s Darren Mitchell kicked four, leaving Mitchell on 86 and Whinnan on 90 goals for the season.
Both teams have the frustration of a bye in the last round of the regular season before commencing finals action.
In the Great Southern League, Mount Compass’ Tom Pinyon kicked three against Langhorne Creek to move to 89, while Broughton-Mundoora’s Gene Robinson snagged two in his side’s one-point win over Jamestown-Peterborough in the Northern Areas Football Association to take his tally to 85.
Waikerie’s Daniel Nobes — who’s kicked 100 for the last three seasons in a row in the Riverland Football League — is currently stranded on 86 after missing the last 3 games with injury.