JASON Dunstall kicked 123 goals in 1993 … and missed selection in that season's All-Australian team.

He booted 145 goals in 1992, and didn't win the Brownlow Medal. He could barely walk with knee problems in 1996, and yet still kicked the ton of goals that year, the sixth time he managed to crack the ton in one of the more extraordinary VFL/AFL careers ever seen.

In the launch episode of AFL.com.au's Centurions, Dunstall details the key moments which defined his 269-match, 1254-goal career, including that of his most cherished football moment, which actually came 10 years after he retired as a player.

>> WATCH EPISODE ONE OF CENTURIONS IN THE PLAYER BELOW

"My memory of 1993 was I missed out on All-Australian – (Gary) Ablett kicked 129, (Tony) Modra 124, got me by one, so he got the second spot and I missed out," Dunstall said in Centurions. 

"When you kick 123 and you don't get in the All-Australian, I reckon you're stiff!"

21:29

Centurions: Six-ton Dunstall's biggest regret from 123-goal year

Goalkicking doyen Jason Dunstall sits down with Damian Barrett to reflect on a career that yielded 1254 goals, in our new series, Centurions.

Published on Jun 11, 2022

In VFL/AFL history, only two players kicked more goals than Dunstall, Tony Lockett (1360) and Gordon Coventry (1299).

Only 28 players have kicked 100 goals in a season, 21 of them are still alive, with AFL.com.au's Centurions series celebrating the deeds of those players in their own words.

Coventry was the first to kick a ton in a season, in 1929. Buddy Franklin was the last to do it, in 2008.

The 28 individuals who have kicked 100 goals in a season did so a combined 57 times. Dunstall and Lockett each did it six times, Peter Hudson five, Coventry four.

In one of the more extraordinary home-and-away matches ever played, Dunstall's Hawthorn played Melbourne in the final round of 1996. The two clubs had entered negotiations to merge the following season. Dunstall, banged up with injury, entered the match with 91 goals for the season. He kicked 10 goals to secure a famous victory.

"That was a special night, and fortunately it got us in the finals but I did my knee in the first quarter," Dunstall said.

"I will never forget Chris Langford taking his jumper off; mind you, if I had a rig like Langers I would've taken it off too and waved it to the crowd. That was huge, that was huge.

"The fact we won by a point, got in the finals because of it, I'd kicked the 10 to get to the 100 … I was thrilled, it worked out really, really well. We were trying to make finals. When you start on 91, you're not thinking you're going to get to the 100."

04:09

Big Bags: Dunstall's 10 goals and century in the 'merger game,' 1996

Hawthorn champion Jason Dunstall kicks a memorable haul in a big game against Melbourne

Published on Aug 12, 2020

In 2004, Dunstall took the role as stand-in chief executive officer of Hawthorn in another tumultuous period for the Hawks. He was instrumental in identifying Alastair Clarkson as the new coach, an appointment which led to the 2008 premiership.

"Hawthorn is a massive part of my life and has been since I finished playing," Dunstall said. "I get as much satisfaction out of what I did off-field as the playing time on-field. Because it had been such a big part of my life I was more than happy to do whatever I could to help them. It doesn't necessarily mean it is right, what you are doing, but you sit there and make decisions based on the best intentions of what you believe is right for the footy club and I tried to do that.

"And when we won … the most satisfaction that I have got out from a flag, it is hard to go past '08. The criticism we copped when we appointed Alastair Clarkson. The first couple of years we got belted a number of times and everyone was laughing and potting us left, right and centre. But we had the commitment to say we think we are in the right track. It came earlier than expected, and to win it in '08, when that happened, oh my god, you have got no idea how proud I was."