Liam Durkin
YOU don’t get called King for nothing.
Kicking 100 goals in a season is getting rarer and rarer, but Rosedale thirds footballer Lachlan Speairs (pictured below) achieved just that at the weekend.
The Blues livewire went into the Round 17 clash against Cowwarr on 89 goals, seemingly some distance away from three figures.
Come three quarter time, it was looking like the ton might have to wait another week, as Speairs ‘only’ had four goals to his name.
However, that might have just been part of the script.
He then kicked six goals in the first 10 minutes of the last quarter, and the century was now well within reach.
A cricketer with Centrals Cricket Club (in Traralgon) during summer, Speairs may have been experiencing the equivalent of the nervous 90s in football, as he then kicked three consecutive behinds.
But then came the moment all at Rosedale Recreation Reserve had been waiting for.
The ball was kicked high inside 50, with Speairs managing to float across and take a mark, before promptly playing on and running into an open goal – his 11th with around two minutes to play.
Teammates came from everywhere to congratulate him, as did the crowd, who ran onto the ground.
Ever the team player, Speairs could have brought up the century earlier, had he not given off a number of goals to teammates.
Speairs’ century has been made up of three bags of 10 goals or more, as well as five games in which he has kicked at least seven.
His path to 100 goals was perhaps made clearer by the fact he managed to bag 15 the week before against Gormandale.
His efforts have seen him rewarded with senior selection for Rosedale this year, while his thirds side looks a good show of defending their premiership, currently sitting second on the ladder.
