Our game has long established an infatuation with the goal-kickers. The blokes who finish off the work of those in front of them.
I can’t speak to Gordon Coventry or Jack Coleman but goal-kickers have always become heroes.
From a personal perspective it was East Perth’s Phil Tierney and Archie Duda. I had a deep respect for Austin Robertson, but didn’t idolise him because he played for Subiaco.
We have been fortunate across the competition in the modern era to have witnessed the exploits of Tony Lockett, Gary Ablett Sr, Jason Dunstall and Lance Franklin. Cult heroes of the game who were worshipped by their respective fans.
It wasn’t much fun watching those spearheads kicking bags of goals against the Eagles but it was/is impossible to not admire them; even visualising them in the blue and gold when they were putting our club to the sword.
Sometimes, though, there is a need to appreciate your own backyard. At the Eagles we haven’t had anyone surpass the 1000 goal barrier and the way the game is played today, with defensive groups focusing so heavily on disrupting the supply chain into the attacking, it is unlikely.
The opposition clogs up the leading lanes so that the best chance of a clean forward 50 entry is from the centre stoppage. It has been like that since the introduction of the 6-6-6 rule.
Just the same Josh Kennedy kicked 712 goals across 271 games for the Eagles. He was a superstar; like Lockett (Plugger) and Franklin (Buddy) you only needed to identify him as JK. Anyone with a loose grasp of the game knew who was being referenced.
JK twice won the Coleman Medal and was the definition of the power forward. He had a remarkable appetite for the contest and the aerobic capacity to test his opponents to the limits.
He is the image in the last decade to what Peter Sumich was in the 1990s. While the game has evolved over time one thing remains constant – winning is based on kicking more goals the opposition.
Suma kicked 514 goals in 150 games and is the only player in club history to have notched up a century in a season. In 19991 he actually kicked 111.89 – a mind blowing 200 scoring shots. There were also a few that drifted out on the full.
Aside from JK, the affable Scott Cummings is the only other Eagle to win the Coleman. That was in 1999 and he kicked 88 goals. It was a travesty that he did not earn all-Australian selection that year, the only time in history it was not been an automatic decision.
Last Sunday at Optus Stadium another Eagle achieved 500 career goals. As a quirky sidelight he did that in his 271st game – the same tally on which JK finished his career.
When he snapped a set across his body Jack Darling joined salubrious company. Only 60-odd players in the history of the game have achieved the feat.
JD has not always been flavour of the month with West Coast fans, but his partnership with JK was one of the great unions in the game. They probably played close to 200 games together and were key players in the heights achieved over the last decade.
Perhaps the reason for subdued adulation in the case of Darling could be attributed to the fact that he is a private man.
He is very much family first and has never enjoyed media street, so he does very little in that space.
But he has enjoyed a wonderful career. As Adam Simpson said last week, he’s one of the greats.
As we reflect on his where he stands in history, you need only to focus on the numbers. And they stack up.
