CARLTON spearhead Charlie Curnow is on the cusp of an achievement reached only twice before this century, but a match-up against one of his least favoured teams could spoil the party on Thursday night.

Curnow's four-goal performance against Brisbane in Opening Round was the 48th game in a row in which he had kicked at least one major, well clear of the next best active streak of 19 games shared by Nick Larkey and Taylor Walker.

Should Curnow's run continue against Richmond this week and North Melbourne in round three (following the Blues' bye in round two), he will join Lance Franklin and Josh Kennedy as the only men this century to have kicked a goal in 50 consecutive games.

Only 26 players have achieved the feat in VFL/AFL history, with Franklin (71 straight games with a goal between 2006 and 2009) and Kennedy (68 games in 2016-19) the most recent of those. Tony Lockett (114 games in 1993-2002) and Matthew Lloyd (70 games in 1999-2002) also enjoyed long streaks that stretched into this century, but started in the 1990s.

As Curnow looks to extend his run to 49 games in Thursday night's traditional round one blockbuster against the Tigers, it's worth noting the last time he went goalless in a game – fittingly – was in the same fixture two years ago, the opening match of the 2022 season.

The Tigers have proven to be somewhat of a bogey side for Curnow across his whole career. He's managed just 11.4 in seven games against them, with his scoring shot per game ratio (2.14) lower against the Tigers than any other team.

However, he does have some good memories from round one against the Tigers; he kicked five goals against them in the 2018 season-opener, although the Blues gave up a lead in that game to lose by 26 points.

Of course, the Curnow we'll see this week is a vastly different player to the one that went goalless from five kicks in round one, 2022. Back then, the Blues spearhead had played just four games in the previous two seasons due to a string of injuries and was just finding his feet again. Since then, he's racked up two Coleman Medals and 145 goals (including 11 bags of five or more) and steered his club to its first finals campaign in a decade.

While the possibility of Curnow extending his current goals streak to 50 games is worth celebrating, he's still a long way off the all-time record of 121 consecutive games with a goal set by Peter McKenna between 1968 and 1974. McKenna and Lockett are the only men to have broken the 100-game mark and are also the only players to have two separate streaks of 50 or more during their careers.

And while Curnow is the clear leader among current players, he technically doesn't own the longest active streak of goals in consecutive games. That belongs to Lockett, whose run of 114 games with a goal only ended when he retired (for the second time) in 2002 having managed one goal in each of the three games in his comeback year, from a grand total of five kicks.

Plugga, if you fancy another comeback, McKenna's all-time record is just seven games away.

Streaks of 50+ games with a goal (since 2000)

121 - Tony Lockett (1993-2002)
71 - Lance Franklin (2006-09)
70 - Matthew Lloyd (1999-2002)
68 - Josh Kennedy (2016-19)

Most consecutive games with a goal (active streaks)

48 - Charlie Curnow
19 - Nick Larkey
19 - Taylor Walker
16 - Kyle Langford
15 - Luke Breust
11 - Charlie Cameron
11 - Lincoln McCarthy
11 - Toby Greene
10 - Tyson Stengle
10 - Jesse Hogan