As he closes in on his 600th goal, vote for your favourite major from Adelaide Crows star’s highlight reel
Veteran forward Eddie Betts goes into Saturday’s clash against Collingwood sitting on 599 goals and one of the best highlight reels the game has seen. We look back at 10 of his best and want you to vote for your favourite.
- Betts adamant he will finish in Adelaide
- Suns, Blues among six in race to cash out Betts
- ‘Betts not done yet’: Pyke
- Betts speaks candidly on AFL future
- Which of Betts’ 2019 goals is best?
- Why brother-in-law has Eddie’s face on backside
It’s no easy task at the best of times to narrow a list of goals down to 10 of the greatest.
That job becomes nearly impossible when there are 599 to choose from, and they come from one of the most electric small-forwards footy has ever seen.
Eddie Betts’ remarkable list of AFL accomplishments includes three Goal of the Year winners — likely four by the end of the season — and a plethora of nominations, including five from 2019 alone.
His ability to conjure a piece of scoring brilliance from the most unlikely of positions is nearly unparalleled in football history, and has left fans with a career highlight-reel of a quality that will probably never be repeated.
As Betts approaches the magical 600-goal mark, take a look back at our hand-picked selection of the most jaw-dropping goals he’s produced over his 314-game career.
Live stream the 2019 Toyota AFL Premiership Season on KAYO SPORTS. Every match of every round. Live & anytime on your TV or favourite device. Get your 14 day free trial >
2006, Round 21, Carlton v Collingwood, MCG (Goal of the Year Winner)
Betts’ first Goal of the Year winner and, arguably, the moment (on one of footy’s biggest stages) that propelled him towards AFL superstar status.
In Carlton’s fiercest rivalry, in front of a packed MCG, the second-year forward showed off all the tricks in his budding arsenal.
He first smothered a handball from Collingwood defender Tarkyn Lockyer, before squeezing a checkside kick through the goals from the tightest of angles under the outstretched arms of Simon Prestigiacomo.
“Goal of the year, Eddie,” proclaimed Brian Taylor in disbelief. He was right.
2008, Round 2, Carlton v St Kilda, Telstra Dome
In the dying seconds of a hefty loss to the powerhouse Saints of the late noughties, Betts gave the few Blues fans that hung around something to cheer about.
A long kick from Andrew Carrazzo snuck over the back of a double-teamed Brendan Fevola, allowing Eddie to pick up the loose ball and slam through a ridiculous reverse-check-side from the boundary on his non-preferred side.
Left-footed checksides would become something of a Betts calling-card in the ensuing years.
2011, Round 18, Carlton v Essendon, MCG
As it turns out, though, checksides aren’t the only magical tool in Eddie’s voluminous kit-bag.
Midway through the third quarter of a dominant Carlton victory, Betts’ mesmeric footwork lulled Essendon defenders Dyson Heppell, Henry Slattery and Jake Carlisle in to a trance on their own goal-line, before Eddie serenely knocked through his 5th goal of the evening under heavy pressure.
Betts ended up with 8 majors — still a career-high — in Carlton’s 74-point win.
It’s rare that an Eddie miracle-goal and an 8-goal bag receives second-billing in the history books, but this match is now primarily remembered for the iconic screamer taken by Andrew Walker on the head of Carlisle late in the final quarter.
2012, Round 11, Carlton v Geelong, Etihad Stadium
Betts kicked 48 goals in season 2012 and none were better than this one against the reigning premiers.
Amid a scramble of players 25-metres out from Carlton’s goal, diminutive midfielder David Ellard snapped up a loose ball and managed to squeeze a handball out to Eddie in heavy traffic.
Betts stopped on a dime — shrugging off David Wojcinski and leaving legendary defender Corey Enright grasping at thin-air — before snapping the ball through on his opposite side after no more than a cursory glance towards the big sticks.
2013, Round 23, Carlton v Port Adelaide, AAMI Stadium
An errant snap towards goal from Carlton ruckman Robbie Warnock left Betts and Port Adelaide’s Cam O’Shea isolated in a one-on-one in the right-forward pocket in what was the last AFL game at AAMI Stadium.
Eddie gathered the ball near the boundary; hypnotised O’Shea, the crowd and the commentary team with a series of ball-fakes one way and the other; somehow kept the footy inside the boundary line with a look-away handball to himself and eventually curled it through the big sticks at the southern end in typically-tranquil fashion despite the oncoming traffic.
Was the ball out-of-bounds? Who cares.
2014, Round 13, Adelaide v North Melbourne, Adelaide Oval
After leaving the Blues in favour of his home-state Crows at the end of 2013, it didn’t take Betts long to make a dazzling impression on his new club.
North Melbourne defender Scott Thompson didn’t quite do enough to kill an aerial contest at right half-back, allowing Eddie to gather the ball on the intersection of the 50-metre-arc and the boundary line.
He took four steps, had a perfunctory look towards the top of the goal-square (as if passing was an option) and banged through a 45-metre, right-footed checkside running at full-pace and under heavy pressure from Kangaroo Aaron Mullett.
If you’re looking for the genesis of “Eddie’s Pocket”, this was it.
2015, Round 9, Adelaide v Fremantle, Adelaide Oval (Goal of the Year Winner)
If a then career-best 51 goals in 2014 hadn’t already endeared Betts to the Adelaide faithful, this moment on a rainy night at the Oval well-and-truly finished the job.
After a marking contest at left half-forward for the Crows, a slightly errant handball from Josh Jenkins meant Eddie was forced to turn outside on to his left foot from the junction of the 50-metre arc and the boundary line.
Not to worry. Betts turned serenely; deliberately positioned the slippery footy in his hands for a torpedo-inducing ball-drop and effortlessly deposited the water-logged Sherrin 49-metres — off one step, mind you — right to the teeth of the goal-line.
It skidded through with ease, and Eddie’s second Goal of the Year win was sewn up on the spot.
2016, Round 10, Adelaide v Greater Western Sydney, Adelaide Oval (Goal of the Year Winner)
Another year, another Adelaide Oval masterclass from Betts, who by this time had established himself as an overwhelming Crows crowd-favourite.
Almost exactly a year to the day since his effort the previous season, and wearing an indigenous guernsey designed by his beloved aunty, Eddie tracked a Heath Shaw spoil to his favoured position on the left 50 metre-arc / boundary-line intersection.
GWS defender Nick Haynes didn’t quite do enough to take the ball out-of-bounds, allowing Betts to bundle Haynes over the line; play hide-and-seek along the boundary using Mitch McGovern as a decoy and eventually turn inside to snap the ball home on his right foot in front of a lunging Adam Tomlinson.
Unsurprisingly, thanks to this effort Eddie notched up his second Goal of the Year win in a row; the first player in VFL/AFL history to do so.
2019, Round 12, Adelaide v Greater Western Sydney, Adelaide Oval
Again in his beloved left-forward pocket at the scoreboard end of Adelaide Oval, Betts — facing away from goal this time — seemed poised to gather a spoil from GWS’ Sam Taylor near the boundary line just in front of Giant Sam Reid, with Heath Shaw barrelling towards him in the opposite direction.
Eddie somehow flicked the ball back behind himself without allowing it to go out-of-bounds and spun 180 degrees in a split-second, leaving Shaw and Reid standing bemused and flat-footed in his wake.
With Zac Williams — seemingly the only player on the ground who knew what was unfolding — closing in on him rapidly, in one swift movement Betts took possession of the footy and bundled an off-balanced, right-footed snap towards the vacant goal-mouth.
It snuck through from the impossible angle, because of course it did.
2019, Round 13, Adelaide v Richmond, Adelaide Oval
Being perfectly placed front-and-centre — as he so often is — to an aerial contest between Hugh Greenwood and Richmond’s Sydney Stack allowed Betts to beat Tiger Nathan Broad to a loose ball in “Eddie’s Pocket”.
The footy — as it so often does for Eddie — sat up perfectly; he took five steps towards the fence to make the angle as difficult as possible and — in direct contravention of the laws of physics — managed to spin the ball from right to left through the tightest of windows straight over the goal umpire’s hat.
Stack, completely understandably, was left as dumbstruck with admiration by the display as everyone else.
Honourable Mentions:
2013, NAB Cup Round 2, Carlton v Fremantle, Etihad Stadium
The fact that it came in a meaningless pre-season fixture does detract slightly from this goal’s importance, but nothing can take away from how spectacular it is.
Docker Zac Dawson was outpaced comprehensively as Eddie gathered the ball inside the boundary line; put the brakes on to slide around Nick Suban and snapped it home on the right foot with incredible composure under pressure.
2015, Round 2, Adelaide v Collingwood, Etihad Stadium
A fumble from Magpie Alan Toovey led to Eddie receiving a handball from Matthew Wright tucked up hard on the right-hand boundary line and with no options inside.
No prizes for guessing what happened next.
2017, Round 4, Adelaide v Essendon, Adelaide Oval
Desperately unlucky to miss the top 10.
Running towards his pocket, Betts roved a Tom Lynch marking contest; somehow had the awareness to tap the ball ahead of himself to evade Bomber Mark Baguley and miraculously snapped a goal over his left-shoulder from 35-metres out while running in the opposite direction to the big sticks.
2019, Round 5, Adelaide v Gold Coast, Adelaide Oval
Late in the last quarter of his 300th game, Eddie took advantage of a feeble Jarrod Harbrow spoil in the left-forward pocket and summed up the situation perfectly, unleashing a vicious left-foot banana that curled right to left at the Cathedral end of Adelaide Oval like a Wasim Akram inswinger.
Never has the unbridled jubilance of a commentary team’s reaction captured the mood of a crowd so perfectly.
It’s a goal his brother-in-law Tom Scullie will never forget — he now has a permanent reminder in tattoo form on his backside courtesy of a losing bet with the Crows star.