I have, and I’m not saying he wasn’t.
I just disagree that his career would have had a linear trajectory if he’d kept playing.
And that’s before factoring in the knee injury.
Plugger played 281 games to kick his record numbers of goals, if Coleman played 281, he may have kicked 2000
Most gun Full Forwards got better with age, imagine Coleman if he could have played at his prime.
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It’s a shame that he didn’t play more. I guess part of the John Coleman Aura is that he didn’t play many games and is still considered an all time great.
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It’s impossible to rank players across eras.
Coleman was 185cm tall. Does anyone think that he would have kicked 100 goals in the modern professional game? I may get slammed for this, but I don’t think he would have come close.
He may have been a superstar when he played, but the game has changed. Players are far more athletic and much taller on average. No doubt he would still be amongst the best players these days, but Buddy Franklin who is an athletic freak has only kicked 100 goals once in his career (2008) because of the way the game is played these days.
Let’s not forget that the game back then was not professional like it is today, so players with natural talent had a far greater chance of dominating than what they have today. Today’s best players work harder than other players, they eat right, they recover correctly, they sleep well and they don’t work outside of footy.
I don’t really know what point I’m trying to make other than you can’t compare eras.
Unless the game changes, it’s unlikely we will ever see a 100 goal season again from any player.
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Imagine how many more premierships we could have won with Coleman playing another 200 games.
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Who was comparing eras ?
If you are picking team of the century, you must consider the era and not just the players achievement.
As an example, Dustin Fletcher played FB during a golden era for FF’s. I would argue that a defender these days has it far easier due to team defense and forwards have it far harder.
This is a golden era for mids.
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would love to see a new greatest team announced next year to celebrate our 150th year anniversary
Number of players from the 80’s-2000’s that probably deserve a call up such as Dustin Fletcher, Jobe Watson etc
l doubt Jobe would get selected.
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Of course, if Coleman had been born 50 years, he would probably have grown to more like 195 cm tall due to better nutrition. Back in the early sixties Geoff Leek, “The Gentle Giant”, was about the third or fourth tallest player in the VFL at a height of 193 cm.
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Is there really any reason to believe that?
Why aren’t James Hird’s kids 200cm tall then?
Could go close to snagging a bench spot, he did “win” a brownlow
Average height of VFL/AFL players has increased 6cm since the 1950s, so I’d put a 2020 Coleman at 192-193cm.
From the descriptions of him he sounds a bit like a quicker (and better) Jack Riewoldt.
From the ABS:
"In 2011-12, the average Australian man (18 years and over) was 175.6 cm tall and weighed 85.9 kg. The average Australian woman was 161.8 cm tall and weighed 71.1 kg.
On average, Australians are growing taller and heavier over time. Between 1995 and 2011-12, the average height for men increased by 0.8 cm and for women by 0.4 cm, while the average weight for men increased by 3.9 kg and for women by 4.1 kg.
In general, older people are shorter than younger people with the average male aged 75 years and over (169.7 cm) being 8.1 cm shorter than one aged 18-24 years (177.8 cm). "
Now, old people do shrink but not usually by anything like as much as 8.1 cm. I am not that far short of 75 and I am only about 2.5 cm shorter than my maximum height of 183 cm.
I further suggest that people of Coleman’s era, having been raised during the depression and World War 2 when good food was far from plentiful, would mostly have experienced relatively poor nutrition compared to those born a generation later and therefore have been shorter still.
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And lets not forget teams were not high scoring those days either. Coleman kicked lots of goals when team scoring was typically low.
He was a freak
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Round 1 1949. This was Coleman’s first year. You’ll find that the scoring was very much on par with what you saw through the 80’s and 90’s.
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Give me the average for the entire 1949+ next 4 or 5 years not 1 game, thats meaningless ……grounds were basically mud piles as soon as it rained too much and stayed like it for most of the year.
Thinking 1950s ave scoring was well under the 80s and 90s…
Do it yourself if you don’t believe me.