John Coleman (Australian Footballer) - The Significance of His 537 Goals

The Significance of His 537 Goals

In relation to assessing Coleman's achievement of 537 goals in 98 senior games vis-à-vis the achievements of:

• Gordon "Nuts" Coventry who played for Collingwood from 1920 to 1937 (kicking 1299 goals in 306 games),
• Jack "Skinny" Titus who played for Richmond from 1926 to 1943 (kicking 970 goals in 294 games),
• Bill Mohr who played for St Kilda from 1929–1941 (kicking 735 goals in 195 games),
• Bob Pratt who played for South Melbourne from 1930 to 1939 (kicking 681 goals in 158 games), and
• Ron Todd who played for Collingwood from 1935 to 1939 (kicking 327 goals in 76 games, with 86 goals in his first three seasons (at centre half-forward), and 241 goals in his last two seasons (at full-forward once Coventry had retired),

it must be remembered that those men played most, or all of their matches under significantly different rules that were decidedly advantageous to full-forwards.

Ostensibly to reduce "the unseemly bullocking in the ruck at boundary throwins", the laws of the game had been altered in 1925 so that the last player to touch the ball before it went out of bounds was penalized by the award of a free kick to the opposing team.

This meant that, in the years that this law operated (i.e., 1925–?1939), a very large amount of the play was directed up the centre of the ground along the goal-to-goal line, and very little was directed along the flanks at the sides of the ground.

This meant numerous free kicks to the half-forwards, with consequent great advantage to the full-forwards of the day.

Coleman played when this rule was no longer in force.