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Crikey , all that hullabaloo when Franklin kicked his 1000th goal – you could have been led to believe it was the greatest sporting moment since Spartacus sliced and diced a gladiator opponent at the Rome Coliseum around 71 BC .
Franklin is a very good Aussie rules player and quite adept at steering the football between the two tall sticks but his record pales in comparison to that of the incomparable Peter Hudson .
Big Buddy notched his 1000th sixpointer in his 320th game – great effort but let ’ s just have a look at his goals-per-game statistics .
His goals-per-game average is 3.125 – not within coo-ee of Hudson ’ s record 5.64 successful pots at goal during his starstudded career with Hawthorn .
The only topline goal-kickers in Victorian Football League / Australian Football League history to come close to Hudson ’ s magnificent average are John Coleman and Tony Lockett .
The great John Coleman played 98 matches for Essendon ( 1949-54 ) and landed 537 goals in 98 matches for average goals-per-match figures of 5.479 .
Lockett has kicked the most goals in a career – 1360 in 281 appearances but his goals-per-match average of 4.84 puts him in third place .
Hudson ’ s amazing career spanned 1963-81 – in that final year of his career , he was coaching Glenorchy in the Tasmanian Football League ( TFL ) and due to a spate of injuries , came out of retirement and played
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the final three games of the season . The old magic was still there , and he managed to kick 30 goals , including eight in the preliminary final defeat .
Prior to snaring a job with the Hobart Mercury ( 1977-79 ), I only took a moderate interest in Australian Rules footy .
That changed when I moved to Tasmania where Aussie Rules totally dominated the footy scene .
Rugby Union and Rugby League competitions were conducted , played by Queensland and New South Wales ex-pats but the Australian Game dominated and was of a high standard .
Down the years a host of Tasmanians ventured across Bass Strait to become champions in the major Rules competition - Peter Hudson , Darrel Baldock , Royce Hart , Alistair Lynch , Brent Croswell and Verdun Howell to name but a few star players .
One of my first assignments for the Mercury in the autumn of ’ 79 was to cover a rules game between two of the top sides , Glenorchy and , I think it was Sandy Bay .
The full forward for Glenorchy was a big lump of a bloke who had trouble lifting his hefty weight more than six inches off the ground when going for a mark .
Back in his heyday with the mighty Hawthorn Hawks ( 1967-77 and 1977 ), Peter Hudson still stood 189cm ( 6ft 2 ins ) but weighed around 80kg .
Back then he was a lithe as a cheetah and had all the moves of a Nureyev – but age tends to pack on the puddin ’ and the then 33-year-old was no exception .
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Being popular mine-host at the popular Granada Tavern in Hobart ’ s northern suburbs wouldn ’ t have helped Peter Hudson keep off the kilos .
But in that first game of Aussie Rules I witnessed , such was Hudson ’ s reading of play , uncanny positional sense and sure hands , he pulled in umpteen marks and landed umpteen goals .
Hudson was still a 17-year-old schoolboy when he made his first-grade debut for New Norfolk which was coached by his father .
He played 78 games for New Norfolk between 1963-66 and notched 378 goals before moving to Melbourne to link with Hawthorn .
His goal-scoring feats continued at his new club where he won the John Coleman Medal ( for most goals in a season ) on four occasions and equalled the brilliant Bob Pratt ’ s record of 150 goals in a season .
Due to a nagging knee injury , Hudson played just the eight games in each of the 1972 and 1973 seasons and only three in 1974 before “ retiring ” and returning to Tasmania .
He managed to get the knee right and played for Glenorchy in 1975-76 and 1978- 79 interspersing that period with a highly successful return to Hawthorn for the 1977 season in which he potted 135 goals . The goal ace ’ s record is truly mindboggling !
Throughout his career with New Norfolk , Glenorchy and Hawthorn , Hudson kicked 1687 goals in 288 games for a
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mindboggling average of 5.857 goals per appearance !
Why is it so ? Why don ’ t rugby league wingers mark their opposing wingers in defence ? If the defender inside him / her misses his / her man / woman , that ’ s not the winger ’ s fault . And .. .. … These days it normally it takes three league defenders to eventually tackle a ball-carrier .
The third player into the tackle finally goes for the legs as the foursome progress 10 metres up the field .
Why doesn ’ t the first player into the tackle , hit the legs ? Beats me !
SAD MARKS : Another old mate has met his maker – Steve Snell , who has the honour of being the only player to play first grade for the Penrith Panthers and Penrith Cricket Club . Many knew Steve , most loved him and the others respected him .
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