Eighteen years and thirteen days ago, Jonathan Brown kicked a club record 10 goals against Carlton at the Gabba.
The then 25-year-old triple premiership hero, playing his 133rd game, piloted a 117-point Brisbane win in Round 16 2007 which saw Carlton coach Denis Pagan sacked 48 hours later.
It was the 12th time Brown had kicked five or more goals in a game. The first was a bag of seven in his 19th game in 2001, and after waiting until his 91st game in 2004 for a second game of five-plus he’d posted four more in 2005, three in 2006 and seven in 2007 (including his 10).
He had seven more in 2018, five in 2009 and four in 2010, giving him 28 in 199 games, before he adding three in the injury-plagued 54-game twilight of his career.
So, in 256 games overall, the best key forward of his era kicked five or more goals in a game 34 times. And in his prime, in 109 games from game #91 to game #199, he hit five-plus 30 times - or fractionally better than one in every four.
Brown was part of a wonderful goal-kicking triumvirate during his Lions golden years, with Daniel Bradshaw kicking 38 bags of five-plus and Alastair Lynch 30 bags of five-plus.
But only nine other Brisbane players have kicked five-plus goals in a game five times or more – Roger Merrett (16), Brad Hardie (12), Jason Akermanis (8), Jarrod Molloy (8), Charlie Cameron (8), Eric Hipwood (7), Ash McGrath (7), Joe Daniher (6) and Michael Voss (5).
So, among 356 Brisbane players all-time, 344 of them – or 96.6% - did not.
And, in a total of 888 games, only 16 times has the team had a player – any player - kick five or more goals three games in a row.
This includes three runs of five games in a row in 2000, 2002 and 2007, and four runs of four games in a row in 1987, 1991, 2001 and 2008.
In the record five-game streaks it was Luke Power (6), Lynch (6), Lynch (5), Power (5) and Bradshaw (7) in 2000, Des Headland (6), Headland (5), Lynch (7), Lynch (7) and Lynch (5) in 2002, and Brown (6), Brown (10), Jared Brennan (7), Brown (6) and Brown (6) in 2007.
So what? So why bother with all these facts and figures?
Because it confirms the five-star rating that should sit on the combined recent effort of Logan Morris (twice) and Zac Bailey (once) to kick five goals in consecutive games against GWS, Geelong and Essendon.
That Morris, a 20-year-old veteran of just 33 games’ experience, and Bailey, a 25-year-old 155-game utility, now sit at the top of the Lions goal-kicking, makes it even more special.
In part, too, it answers the question that has been asked countless times in media circles this year … how will the Lions cover the retirement of Joe Daniher, who had kicked 204 goals in the past four years – 46-39-61-58 – and topped the goal-kicking in 2023-24 and finishing second to Charlie Cameron in 2021-22?
And while it’s never as simple as ‘most goals wins’ it is significant that among 79 players in the AFL this year who have played at least 10 games and averaged better than a goal a game Brisbane have six of them – Morris (2.07gpg), Bailey (1.56gpg), Hipwood (1.38gpg), Callum Ah Chee (1.33gpg), Charlie Cameron (1.21gpg) and Cam Rayner (1.06gpg).
Only Fremantle (7) have more, while Adelaide (6) and Geelong (6) are level with the Lions.
All this is after the top end of the Lions goal-kicking list last year read Daniher (58), Cameron (44), Kai Lohmann (36), Hipwood (33), Rayner (31), Ah Chee (27), Morris (24), and Bailey (22).
In 15 games this year – excluding the Round 3 Gabba game against Geelong when the Lions had eight players each kick one goal – the defending premiers have had nine different players head the weekly goal-kicking list (including ties).
Hipwood (4) has done so most often despite spending more time in the ruck, while Morris, Bailey, Ah Chee, Cameron and Rayner (3) have had their share, and Lohmann and Darcy Gardiner topped the goal-kicking outright once, and Oscar McInerney shared it once.
In simple terms, coach Chris Fagan and has troops have found a way to share the load. As they will do try to do again against Carlton at Marvel Stadium on Thursday night.
