The leading goalkicker at the end of the MFL season is awarded the perpetual Les Mogg Cup, and there is perhaps no better place to start than with the man himself.
A wingman for North Melbourne, Mogg played in the 1950 losing grand final against Essendon, before making the move to Cobram in 1954 as captain-coach.
Winning three successive premierships from 1959 to 1961, Mogg enjoyed a prolific 1960 season, becoming the first man in the MFL to break the illustrious 100-goal barrier, and would remain the sole member of the 100 club for 19 years.
With 132 regular season goals, Mogg became the first person to win both the goalkicking and O’Dwyer medals as league best and fairest in the same season, while also setting a league goalkicking record that remained the benchmark for more than two decades.
It would take the all-time national record to break Mogg’s stranglehold on the league record, when the great Trevor Sutton produced mind-boggling numbers for Deniliquin.
The legend of Sutton is well known, but the sheer ridiculousness of his efforts makes it worth looking at again.
After a 1981 season that netted 105 goals, the Deni full-forward slotted 249 goals in 1982, 227 of which came in the home-and-away season, in a feat that will surely never be equalled.
In the first nine rounds, Sutton bagged hauls of eight, eight, 13, seven, eight, 24, seven, 15, and nine to become the first known person in any league to record 100 goals by the halfway point of the season.
The second half of the season saw the Rams spearhead somehow become even more productive, booting nine, 12, 14, 16, three, 19, 20, 13, 17 and 11 to end the regular season, before snagging seven, eight and seven in the finals as a remarkable season ended in a preliminary final defeat to Cobram.
For his efforts, Sutton clinched the O’Dwyer Medal, polling 26 votes with six best-on-ground performances, only the second man behind Mogg to ever achieve the league best/goalkicking double.
While the heights Sutton reached will never be touched again, there have still been some mightily impressive efforts since.
Between kicking 155 goals for Assumption College in Kilmore in 1984 and debuting for Geelong in 1986, Billy Brownless returned home to Jerilderie for a season with the Demons, who were then a part of the Murray Football League.
At just 18 years of age, Brownless led the league for majors, kicking 136 goals in the home-and-away season and leading Jerilderie to the grand final, where he kicked six of the Demons’ nine goals in the loss to Deniliquin.
More recently, Nathalia great Brendon Parker dominated defences across the league, claiming the Les Mogg Cup in four straight seasons from 2004 to 2007, the latter three coming in premiership years for the Purples.
A renowned goalkicker, Parker had claimed the Goulburn Valley League’s Morrison Medal in 1991 with Tongala, and before spending time at Carlton and SANFL side North Adelaide, the full-forward returned to his home club.
Parker had an immediate impact, leading the league with 92 goals in his return year, before following it up with consecutive hauls of 120, 108 and 106 majors in premiership years as he spearheaded the Purps on the first of their all-conquering finals runs this century.
There have been five seasons where players have cracked the ton since Parker, including Sam Lloyd in 2010 kicking 105 goals for Deniliquin prior to being picked up by Richmond, and local great Paul Newman bagging 100 for Tongala in 2015.
Cameron McCabe (117 goals for Moama in 2008) and Ashley Froud (112 goals for Mulwala in 2017) have also achieved the feat since, with Josh Mellington (125 goals for Echuca United in 2019) being the most recent to hit the milestone.
With Harney moving to 91 following his antics on the weekend, and Nathalia’s Liam Evans on 87, there is still a chance either of the two will add their names to the history books by bringing up the century.
