Tony Lockett

Anthony Howard Lockett (born 9 March 1966) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the St Kilda Football Club and Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League (AFL). Nicknamed "Plugger", he played as a full-forward and holds the VFL/AFL record for career goals, scoring 1,360 goals in total. Inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2006 and upgraded to Legend status in 2015, he is the most prolific goalkicker in VFL/AFL history, breaking Gordon Coventry's 62-year record in 1999 with his 1300th goal and eventually finishing with 1,360 goals from 281 games. He became the first full-forward to be awarded the Brownlow Medal (achieved in 1987), won the Coleman Medal four times, and kicked more than 100 goals in a season on six occasions (an AFL record he shares with Jason Dunstall of Hawthorn). While Lockett's accomplishments and statistics support his status as an Australian football hero, his individual influence on St. Kilda and Sydney is also noteworthy. He arrived at St Kilda when the club was in the doldrums and became the man on whose shoulders the club's fortunes depended. Similarly, when he moved to Sydney in 1995, the Swans were struggling both on and off the field; they had finished bottom of the ladder in 1994 and were battling to stay relevant in the heart of rugby league territory. After kicking more than 100 goals three times in four seasons and famously booting a point to send Sydney into the 1996 AFL Grand Final, Lockett helped to ensure Australian rules football would have a lasting future in the Harbour City. Lockett's achievements are all the more remarkable given the significant chunks of time he missed through injury and suspension. Besides suffering from chronic asthma, he struggled to maintain his weight (which fluctuated from 95...