Lance Franklin has become the fourth youngest player in AFL history to reach 900 goals.

Franklin, at 31 years and 166 days, headed into Sunday’s match against North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium needing just one goal to become the ninth member of the League’s 900 Goal Club.

Only Jason Dunstall (29 years, 15 days), Tony Lockett (29 years 24 days) and Matthew Lloyd (31 years 16 days) have reached this massive milestone at a younger age.

‘Buddy’ reached 900 goals in his 284^th game to sit eighth on the games list among this extraordinary group.

Lockett was quickest to 900 goals in terms of games at 184, followed by Dunstall 188, Gary Ablett Snr 220, Gordon Coventry 224, Doug Wade 226, Matthew Lloyd 258 and Jack Titus 266. Matthews took 324 games.

When Franklin joined the Swans in 2014 he had kicked 580 goals.

Wearing the red and white, he has continued at such a high level he now sits ahead of Tony Modra (588), Kelvin Templeton (593), Jonathan Brown and Stewart Loewe (594), Michael Roach (607), Brendan Fevola (623), Michael Moncrieff (629), David Neitz (631), Alastair Lynch (633), Jack Moriarty (662), Bob Pratt (681), Matthew Pavlich (700), Dick Lee (707), Nick Riewoldt (718), Harry Vallance (722), Wayne Carey and Peter Hudson (727), Bill Mohr (735), Stephen Kernahan (738), Barry Hall (746), Sav Rocca (748), Kevin Bartlett (778), Matthew Richardson (800), Bernie Quinlan (817) and Peter McKenna (874).

Franklin went past McKenna in Round 4 this season to move to ninth spot on the all-time list, and with a big finish he could pass Leigh Matthews and Matthew Lloyd before the end of the season.

The all-time top 10 goal-kickers in AFL history are:

1360 – Tony Lockett
1299 – Gordon Coventry
1254 – Jason Dunstall
1057 – Doug Wade
1030 – Gary Ablett Snr
970 – Jack Titus
926 – Matthew Lloyd
915 – Leigh Matthews
899 – Lance Franklin
874 – Peter McKenna

A comparison of the relative ages and games played at the 100-goal milestones of the top 10 goal-kickers of all-time is fascinating – although the comparison is skewed because goals in the modern era, in which Franklin has played his entire time with the Swans, are so much harder to come by. The days of really big bags appear largely gone.

Franklin’s famous and career-best 13 goals came in a game for Hawthorn in 2012 and he has topped 10 goals twice in his career. Whereas playing in a different era, the likes of Lockett (22), Dunstall (16), McKenna (13), Ablett (12) and Coventry (11) reached that milestone on several occasions.

But for the football statisticians and historians the comparison is still an interesting exercise.

Using games played as the measuring stick rather than age, Wade has been quickest among the top 10 goal-kickers all-time to 100 goals (29 games) and 200 goals (58 games).

McKenna is quickest to each of the next five big milestones: 300 goals (76 games), 400 goals (92 games), 500 goals (107 games), 600 goals (124 games) and 700 goals (141 games). And Lockett was quickest to 800 goals (165 games), 900 goals (184 games) and 1000 goals (201 games).

Among the top 10, Franklin sits 9^th in games played to reach 100 goals, 7^th to 200 and 300 goals, 8^th to 400, 500, 600 and 700, and 9^th to 800 and 900.

The wildcard in the discussion is Peter Hudson. He kicked 727 goals in 129 games and was quicker than all of the top 10 goal-kickers to each of his seven ‘00’ milestones.

Among all AFL players who played at least 50 AFL games Hudson has the highest goals-per-game average at 5.64, ahead of 98-gamer John Coleman (5.48), Lockett (4.84) Dunstall (4.66), McKenna (4.58), Bob Pratt (4.31) and Coventry (4.25).

Franklin ranks 23^rd at 3.18 goals per game, while unheralded ex-South Melbourne spearhead Lindsay White, who also played at Geelong, ranks 15^th at 3.80 goals per game.

The quickest 100-goal block among this group is Ablett’s 13-game charge from 600 goals to 700 goals in 1993. He kicked 14-4-12-7-3-7-10-5-11-5-5-10-8 in that time.

Lockett’s best 100-goal block was 14 games when he went from 400 goals to 500 at St Kilda in 1989-90. He kicked 8-5-5-6-6-9-12-3-5 in his last nine games of 1989, and 10-9-2-7-7 in his first five games of 1990.

Franklin’s best has been 24 games when he went from 100 goals to 200 at Hawthorn. He kicked 4-5-2-2-1-7-3 to close out the 2007 season, and then 6-4-5-6-8-1-6-6-3-5-9-1-1-5-4-3-4 in 2008.

By the Numbers

The tables below indicate the games each player in the top 10 goal-kickers all-time, plus Peter Hudson, had played and their age when they reached each of the 100-goal milestones. Also listed are the number of times each player kicked 7+ goals, and their full career summary.