AS A 20-year-old, Michael Roach took arguably the mark of the 1900s. As a 21-year-old, he kicked 100 goals in a season and secured the Coleman Medal and VFL premiership.
The famous Richmond footballer is the latest guest on AFL.com.au's special series Centurions, highlighting the VFL/AFL's elite 28 players (21 still living) who have kicked 100 goals in a season.
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Requiring nine goals in a round 20, 1980 match against Melbourne at the MCG, 'Disco' became just the 15th VFL player to kick 100 goals in a season with what he described in this interview as the best kick of his career.
"The older I get, I was a hundred metres out," he joked. "I had plenty of adrenaline and thought I would hoe into this and see what happens, and I hit it perfectly, it was probably one of my best ever kicks. And it went through, it was lovely.
"Let's say it was 65-70 (metres), I won't do a Malcolm Blight.
"When it goes through, you're very happy but then you've got the people running on the ground, and I had big David Cloke there protecting me, an amazing feeling but it all happened very quickly.
"To do it and play in a premiership at 21 years of age (that same season) was amazing."
In 1979, Roach kicked 90 goals, and in 1981 he booted 86.
"And then they decided to recruit a few more full-forwards in Brian Taylor which meant I had to run and play somewhere else for a while," Roach said. "Then Brian left and I went back to full-forward."
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Roach played 200 games with the Tigers between 1977 and 1989, kicking 607 goals.
The Tigers during the Roach goalkicking success had massive appeal, and for three seasons, in a team which included Kevin Bartlett, Geoff Raines, Francis Bourke, Cloke and Dale Weightman, no one had a bigger profile than Roach.
"It was nice to be kicking 100 goals and taking marks but I was kept very grounded by my teammates," Roach said.
