Defence leads dramatic decline of country footy's 100-goal heroes

Only two players have booted 100 goals in Victoria's premier leagues since 2022 as team defence takes charge. See the full list of the top goalkickers in recent years.

Country footy has a lengthy list of legendary forwards who consistently kicked 100 goals in Victoria’s best leagues.

The late Ron Best was the pick of them as he dazzled Bendigo league fans for more than a decade.

From 1968 to 1980, Best booted more than 100 goals in a season 11 times in a brilliant career of close to 2000 goals.

Trevor Sutton kicked more than 100 goals in four leagues, including a national record 249 goals in 1982 playing for Deniliquin in the Murray league.

Kelvin Templeton also booted 100 goals for Latrobe Valley powerhouse Traralgon in 1973 as a 16-year-old and seven years later won the Brownlow Medal playing for Footscray.

The late Ron Best was a champion goalkicker in the Bendigo league.

A matchwinning key forward remained an essential ingredient of any major league premiership into the 2000s.

Simon Goosey, Lachlan Sharp, Grant Weeks, David Johns, Daniel Jordan, Saad Saad, Paul Newman, Jason Rowan, Josh Mellington and Brendan Fevola kept the tradition alive.

But Victoria’s big leagues have undergone a major shift away from the reliance of the big forward to boot 100 goals to achieve the ultimate success.

Team defence coaching has made its way down from the elite level.

Forwards are forced to deal with never seen before flooding and congestion inside their 50m arc.

Major country footy league leading goalkickers totals since 2022.

A Weekly Times analysis reveals only two Victorian premier competition players have kicked more than 100 goals in a season since the Covid years of 2020-21 and both played in the Murray league.

Echuca United’s James Harney booted 102 goals in the 20-round season of 2023, his tally helped by bags of 25 and 12 against the wooden-spooners who didn’t win a game.

Congupna’s Kyle Mueller had to play in the grand final last year to bring up the other century.

But no forward in the Ballarat, Bendigo, Geelong, Gippsland, Goulburn Valley, Hampden, Ovens & Murray, Sunraysia or Wimmera leagues has kicked a 100 goals since 2022.

Jordan kicked 774 goals in only eight seasons in the Ballarat league, winning the goalkicking five times including a best of 148 in 2006 when he also won the competition’s best and fairest.

He presently coaches Darley and believes ‘there has definitely been a shift” from his playing days.

“From the way I coach now and how it was when I played, it is certainly different,” Jordan said.

“The key to kicking 100 goals was performing really well against the good sides, getting your five and six, but against the poorer sides, you had to cash in.

“But it’s all changed with a lot of teams not going as direct anymore.

“They like uncontested marks, want to go lateral and not get the ball as forward as much.

“The calibre of coaches has certainly improved.

“You’ve got players having a role in their respective positions, certain things you are asking of them, different patterns to run.

“It’s much more intricate in terms of the system you want to play both offensively and defensively.

“I’d love to see someone come along and take the comp by storm and kick 100 goals again.

“But it’s become rarer and rarer.”

Darley coach Dan Jordan and captain Brett Bewley after its 2023 premiership win. Picture: Hamish Blair

Newman kicked almost 1000 goals in the Goulburn Valley for Kyabram and booted 100 goals for Tongala in 2015 before launching his highly successful coaching career.

Kyabram pieced together a 83-1 win-loss record between 2016-19 for three flags under Newman.

“As a player, defence was the last thing on my mind,” Newman said.

“But as a coach I ended up being that way inclined in wanting to shut good players down.

“Once a team starts implementing the team defence stuff well like a full ground press, and you’re not a club doing it, you soon get found out.

“When a couple started doing it well, everyone jumped on the bandwagon.”

Paul Newman kicked nearly 1000 goals before becoming a premiership-winning coach in the Goulburn Valley league. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin

Newman still coaches at junior levels and sees under-age players having system-based football “drilled into them” at a young age through various talented pathway programs.

“By the time they become senior footballers it’s pretty much what they only know,” he said.

“When I was the same age you had the TAC Cup at under-18s, but nothing else prior to that other than a bit of schoolboys footy.

“Sadly gone are the days of the big forwards people want to go and watch.

“I remember as a kid when Chris Stuhldreier played for Ky and we just went from end-to-end and watched him kick goals all day.”

Major country footy league leading goalkickers totals since 2022.

Travis Hodgson played on some of country footy’s best forwards at club and interleague level before starting his coaching career at major league level a decade ago.

“We’re now teaching our forwards how to defend and our backs how to attack,” he said.

“The opposite used to be always the case.

“I started coaching when forwards were kicking big bags of goals and keeping them to two or three was huge because on a good day they would kick eight to 10.

“But when one of my players now kicks five goals out of your 10 or 12, you can’t not to have him in your best couple of players.

“Five goals is the new 10.”

Originally published as Defence leads dramatic decline of country footy's 100-goal heroes