Buddy on track to top Sav’s AFL goal tally

One by one, Lance Franklin is reeling in the players outside the top ten in the all-time VFL-AFL goalkicking list and has Saverio Rocca in his sights this week.

The Sydney spearhead started the 2016 season on 706 goals, making him the leading goalkicker among current players, but just 22nd on the all-time list.

With half the season completed, Franklin has zoomed up to 14th after kicking 41 goals and leads the Coleman Medal race.

Two more majors against Greater Western Sydney next Sunday and he will ease past former Collingwood and North Melbourne forward Rocca into 13th spot.

Franklin has this season passed some of the most famous forwards in history.

Among those now in Buddy’s rear view mirror are legends Peter Hudson and Wayne Carey (both 727), Stephen Kernahan (738) and Barry Hall (746).

Over the course of the first half of this season he also passed three one-club players who plied their trade in the first half of the 20th century in Collingwood’s Dick Lee (707), Carlton’s Harry Vallence (722) and St Kilda’s Bill Mohr (735).

Provided he stays injury free and in decent form he should catch 12th-placed Kevin Bartlett (778) before the Swans 2016 campaign climaxes.

But he’ll be hard pressed to reach another Richmond hero Matthew Richardson (800, 11th) in 2016.

If he stays fit and in form and plays out the remaining six and a half years on his Sydney contract, 29-year-old Franklin could conceivably become just the sixth player to reach the 1000 goal milestone.

Franklin looks to have all of his contemporaries covered

The next highest current players on the all-time list are 34-year-old Fremantle veteran Matthew Pavlich (683, 22nd) and 33-year-old St Kilda icon Nick Riewoldt (669, 24th).

The last player to kick 100 goals in a season back in 2008, Franklin looked a fair chance to reach three figures after bagging 34 from the first eight rounds.

However, he has kicked just seven in the last three rounds and was held to one in wet conditions against Gold Coast last weekend.

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