AMONG the 28 players, 21 of whom remain alive, to have kicked a century of goals in a VFL/AFL season, there lies an oft-forgotten name.
Geoff Blethyn.
In 1972, effectively out of nowhere, Blethyn, the latest footballer to be featured in AFL.com.au’s Centurions series, became just the 12th footballer to reach the ton, 20 years after Essendon great John Coleman had reached his third and last century and 28 years before Matthew Lloyd was to become the third Bomber to do so.
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Blethyn’s story is as rich and as fascinating as any of the 28. He was 17 and still at school when he played his third senior game at full-forward against Carlton great Wes Lofts in the 1968 Grand Final, where 116,000 people attended and he kicked four of his team’s eight goals in a match lost by three points.
Blethyn reached the ton as a 21-year-old. And then took off to pursue business interests in Perth. He returned to Essendon for the 1976 season and in 1977 he played for Port Adelaide in a SANFL premiership.
And he played in glasses.
After his three matches as a 17-year-old in 1968, Blethyn played 16 games in 1969 for 12 goals, 13 in 1970 for 33 goals, and 15 in 1971 for 21.
In the 1972 season, 23 matches reaped 107 goals. He started in blistering form that year, in the first six rounds his goal sequence read seven, four, seven, seven, seven, five. He booted 11 against Footscray in round 12, a then-VFL record number of goals in a losing team.
“I didn’t know what I was on track for, because there was no expectations, and in all honesty it wasn’t until I got to 90 that I started to think about it,” Blethyn told Centurions.
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The ton came in Round 21 against Fitzroy at Junction Oval.
“I went into that match on 96 and then I really started to think about it,” he said.
“I’m that sort of person, I don’t think too much about what could and should happen until I get there. There wasn’t a great deal of media that I felt, anyway.
“I got a couple of tiggy-touch free kicks.”
There was drama surrounding the hundredth goal. A Blethyn kick had crossed the goal line, only for the umpire to pay a free kick against Essendon, but not before the crowd started pouring onto the ground.
Police on horses were caught up in the surge.
“I didn’t know what to do – I had seen it on TV when it happened to Peter McKenna and Doug Wade and others, and when you watch that, you do wonder what that would be like, and then it was actually me in this herd of people coming at me, and they’re wanting to talk,” Blethyn said.
“I was serious and I didn’t want to talk to them, just get on with the game. It wasn’t a relief because I didn’t have expectation to get there. The biggest thing I wanted, and it was strange, because of what goes through your mind when you’re lining up for it. All I remember doing is wanting to kick as best kick as I could, as I did in the backyard and the paddock. The first one (which was taken back) was like that, but then I had to do it again. It was virtually in the same spot.”
Blethyn reverted to wearing glasses during games after problems with contact lenses.
“It was in that period of time where if you wore (contact) lenses, they were about as thick as your fingernail, and they weren’t flexible, and if you got a knock to the head, they would fly out,” he said. “I had lost three pairs in the first six weeks. And so fortunately the optician in Melbourne was able to find American All-Stars nylon spectacles and they worked a treat for me. That gave me a security.
“… I copped a bit (of opposition and crowd abuse) but I always go back to one of my early coaches, and he was always saying that if they are doing stuff to you, they are not concentrating on the game.”
Back for a second season, Centurions catches up with the rockstars of footy's past to unpack tales from the select group who've kicked 100 goals in a season.
Centurions, season one
JASON DUNSTALL Hawk champ's biggest regret
MALCOLM BLIGHT Why Roo left after Coleman Medal year
MICHAEL ROACH Why Disco's mum missed his 100th goal
KELVIN TEMPLETON From Brownlow Medallist to moved on
PETER McKENNA The one moment that still pains triple-ton Magpie
SIMON BEASLEY How Dog became the decade's greatest goalkicker
PETER HUDSON Why five-ton Hawk is glad he didn't break the record
BRIAN TAYLOR Why BT missed his chance in three grand finals
Centurions, season two
MATTHEW LLOYD Dons great on his tons, missed glory and fighting back
LARRY DONOHUE How the 'yips' almost cost Cat his ton
WARWICK CAPPER Football's greatest showman opens up