Champion Hawthorn forward Jason Dunstall reflects on the day he kicked 17 goals against Richmond
It was the sort of performance that goes down in history. And it all started with a change to his pre-game routine. In SuperFooty’s rewind series, get the inside story on the day Jason Dunstall booted 17 goals against the Tigers.
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Jason Dunstall remembers it as being one of those days when everything went right.
His dodgy ankle wasn’t playing up, the umpires were on his side against the stopping tactics of the opposition, and the bounce of the ball went his way.
It all came together to deliver the Hawthorn spearhead the biggest haul of his career — 17 goals against Richmond in Round 7, 1992, at Waverley Park.
“I remember the day because it was a time where there was a lot of scragging of the full-forwards going on,” Dunstall said.
“There were a lot of really good full-forwards at the time and there were a lot of tactics being applied to stop them.
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“But on this particular day I got two or three kicks from the umpires, which was very unusual because they had obviously said, ‘Look, we need to crack down on some of the tactics that are being used’.
“Then I got a couple of balls that bounced sideways into my hands. It was one of those days where everything that could go right just did go right.”
Dunstall’s 17.5 remains the second-highest haul in VFL/AFL history behind Melbourne’s Fred Fanning, who kicked 18.1 against St Kilda in 1947.
Walking on to the field for the game, the three-time Coleman Medal winner didn’t feel it was going to be his lucky day — but there had been one change in his pre-game medical maintenance.
“It was actually the first time in about a month I didn’t have a jab in my ankle, because I had some ankle issues,” he said.
“On that particular day I thought ‘Well, I haven’t had too many problems with it, we’ll try it without the jab’, and I always had heavy strapping on my ankles and it just worked out very, very nicely.
“But other than going out there and trying to win a normal game of footy, I didn’t feel extra special or anything.”
The haul was one of 16 bags of 10 goals or more Dunstall kicked in his career, but he said it was a standout.
“The next best was 14 (against Footscray in Round 19, 1996), so it stands out a bit,” said Dunstall, who kicked 1254 goals in his career. “When you get to a big number like that, you get a little bit excited.
“But I was also very tired, as the ball was always coming down. I wasn’t exactly known as an endurance beast, so it was a big day’s work for me.”
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Dunstall reckons he had four or five opponents that day, but he never gave any lip — that wasn’t his style. He let his football do the talking.
“There would have been, at different stages, four or five different opponents on that particular day. They rotated them pretty quickly,” the Fox Footy commentator said.
“I was never a sledger on the field. I didn’t have the energy to waste. I needed that breath, I needed it all. I was just never a sledger. I just tried to focus on the footy.”
But Dunstall said his teammates couldn’t resist a chance after the match to wind him up.
“A couple of them as we were walking off were going, ‘You’re kidding, aren’t ya?’,” he said with a laugh.
“They were more taking the piss sort of thing, as they would do.”