Lance Franklin would beat Tony Lockett, Jason Dunstall goal tallies if he had played in 1980s

PLAYING as a key forward now is harder than ever, writes PATRICK DANGERFIELD. Imagine Plugger playing today — or Lance Franklin terrorising defenders in the 80s.

Tom Hawkins kicks at goal. Picture: Wayne Ludbey

I’M the No. 1 cheerleader for the key forwards club.

They’re the most important players on the ground by a long way. You build your team around a Tom Hawkins, Tom Lynch, Josh Kennedy or Lance Franklin.

Come finals time you need a tall, key forward to make life easier because teams kick longer rather than shorter during September and that big presence is so important.

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The problem for the current key forwards is we’re very harsh in critiquing them because we’re comparing them to another era.

If Tony Lockett or Jason Dunstall played in 2017 they wouldn’t have the figures that sit beside their names at the top of the all-time list.

Flipping it the other way, if “Buddy” had played in the 1980s-90s he would have finished his career with 2000 goals.

Lance Franklin lets fly against Richmond. Picture: George Salpigtidis

A few weeks ago we saw him reach his 800th career goal. If he had been playing 20 years ago, that would have been his 1200th goal at the absolute minimum.

This is based on Buddy being allowed to be one-out with his opponent in the goalsquare, which is how footy was played back in the “good old days”.

Imagine how many goals Cyril Rioli would kick? He’d be in the 800 territory.

This was a debate the boys were having in the changerooms during the week.

We couldn’t see how this current generation wouldn’t have been as dominant as those great players like Lockett and Dunstall with the working conditions in which they’d operated in the forward 50.

The requirements on key forwards now are enormous.

They have to deal with two or maybe three defenders hanging off them, they have zone defences limiting their space and then there is the notion that they have be able to play defence.

You could count on one hand the number of tackles “Plugger” registered in a season.

By comparison, look at what Josh Kennedy does now at West Coast. He was leading their tackle count in 2014 and 2015, with Jack Darling. Their numbers in the forward line were astronomical.

This forward-50 pressure was a trademark of their games and they’d probably have more tackles in year than the former generation had in their entire careers.

Previously, all a key forward worried about was how and when the ball was coming into their area.

Josh Kennedy does a lot more than kick a lot of goals.

Tom Hawkins kicks a big goal for Geelong. Picture: Michael Klein

Nowadays, if you look at down-the-field vision you’ll see Hawkins, Kennedy and Franklin marshalling the troops around them.

They’re in charge of running the offence and they don’t just sit there and focus on where the ball is. They’re looking at the structure around them and making sure their teammates are doing the right thing.

On top of these responsibilities they now have to contend with a defender whose mindset isn’t just to stand next to them but, in fact, find ways to attack.

I loved the good old days when teams didn’t roll numbers behind the play, there was no such thing as Paul Roos’ 2005 flooding tactics and very rarely was there a third man in any marking contest.

It was a one-on-one battle of the giants and everyone loved it. I wish we still had it now and if we did then Buddy and his mates would be at the same level as the greats of yesteryear.

Tony Lockett was almost unstoppable one-on-one.

Comparing generations is impossible but it’s what we do as fans. We’re always comparing.

In this past week there has been debate about Adelaide youngster Jack Lever in comparison to Alex Rance, Rance to Matthew Scarlett and even Gary Ablett Jr to Leigh Matthews.

We’re always searching for an answer about who is the best, which is why people compare LeBron James to Michael Jordan.

It’s a never-ending debate and there is no right answer but it’s certainly fun looking.

So will we ever see another 100-goal season?

Lockett and Dunstall did it six times each. The most recent ton came from Buddy — in 2008, when Brendan Fevola also kicked 99 goals.

That was nine years ago, which shows how much the game has changed. Nevertheless, I’m backing in a member of my favourite club to deliver another 100-goal season ... but, sadly, it will be astonishingly rare.

Originally published as Lance Franklin would beat Tony Lockett, Jason Dunstall goal tallies if he had played in 1980s