Walker has kicked 48 goals this season. Along with Garlett (40) and Betts (38), they are well on target to becoming the 11th trio since 2000 to kick at least 40 each.
Since 2000, only 10 teams have had three players or more kick 40 goals each in a season.
Of those 10, only one combination (Hawthorn's Lance Franklin, Jarryd Roughead and Mark Williams) has played in a premiership in the same season.
The Carlton trio are interesting in historical terms because there is not an obvious tall forward among them (Walker, at 190cm, is a medium-sized forward; a small tall, so to speak).
Generally, when three players kick 40 or more goals in the one team, at least one of the players will be a tall.
The only recent line-up with a similar look was the Bulldogs in 2008, with Brad Johnson (50 goals), Scott Welsh (49) and Jason Akermanis (44) featuring in a short forward line that took the team to a preliminary final.
It is still possible the Carlton trio will each kick 50 goals. Such an event is extremely rare, however. Only nine times in the game's history has a team had three players each kick 50 goals in one season.
All nine combinations to achieve the feat included one tall forward. It happened most recently in 2000, when the Brisbane Lions' trio Alastair Lynch (68 goals), Daniel Bradshaw (56) and Luke Power (52) created havoc inside the Lions' 50. Brisbane finished fifth that season, before going on to win the next three flags.
It is probably self-explanatory that such 50-goal combinations happen in successful teams, but only once has such a combination achieved the feat in a premiership season.
That was way back in 1926, when Melbourne's Bob Johnson (a 191cm forward with 50 goals), Harry Moyes (170cm, 55) and Harry Davie (169cm, 50) were on fire. Davie did not play in the Grand Final, but Johnson and Moyes combined to kick nine of Melbourne's 17 goals that day.
Apart from the Carlton trio, the top teams all have strong goalkicking combinations. Collingwood already has seven players who have each kicked more than 20 goals this season, and is on track to at least match the nine players who kicked 20 or more in 2010 (with Leigh Brown on 19 and Dayne Beams and Luke Ball on 15 each). That is a great asset to take into finals.
St Kilda has a dynamic duo in Stephen Milne (46) and Adam Schneider (21) with a handy centre half-forward in Nick Riewoldt (26) as a target, while the Eagles' trio of Josh Kennedy (44), Mark Le Cras (33) and Mark Nicoski (29) have the capacity to each kick more than 50 goals in a season.
Geelong has five players who have kicked more than 20 goals this season, with James Podsiadly (42) and Steve Johnson (38) at the top of the list, while the Hawks have Lance Franklin way out in front with 54, with the dangerous Cyril Rioli (19) at his feet and a handy support act in Luke Breust (19).
The Carlton trio are learning to combine well. On top of the goals they kick, they also tackle and chase as well as anyone, their referred pressure a concern for all defenders.
At the moment, they are the best small forward combination in the AFL and the best performed in 2011.
The finals will determine whether they hold that mantle at season's end.
This story first appeared in the AFL Record
