With our picks for the best defensive groups that never overlapped in the AFL era in the books, it is now time to shift our focus to the opposite end of the field.
When we think about the game's greatest highlights, it is usually the men in the goal square that acted as architects.
When we as fans cast our minds back to the first numbers we ever had stitched onto our replica jumpers, it was usually the full forward's digits that we selected.
They are the men that keep both the scoreboard and the turnstiles ticking.
With the AFL era now 32 years old (1990 to the present day), we here at Zero Hanger have decided to select a group of club greats on each line whose careers never overlapped.
As with our group of defenders, here are the ground rules for selection:
1. Three players must be selected from each club.
2. Even if they have played for multiple clubs, no player can be selected on the list of two teams.
3. All players must have played at least a portion of their careers from 1990 onwards.
4. As mentioned, no player can have played an in-season match with any of their colleagues during their time at their selected club.
For example, should Jason Dunstall be selected for Hawthorn, then all of his forward line friends from 1985 to 1998 will fail our criteria.
With that in mind, here is our best stab.
Let us know how we have gone and which clubs you feel have fared best.
Collingwood
Peter Daicos – 1979-1993 (250 games and 549 goals)
Irrespective of club ties, when compiling a list of champion goal kickers, Peter Daicos' name should never face omission.
With an average of 2.2 goals per game in his 250 appearances as a Pie, I am unlikely to hear any sound rebuttal for my stance.
Despite never surpassing the 100-goal mark, Daicos topped Collingwood's annual sharpshooters charts on five occasions between 1981 and 1992.
However, with Daicos, it was not so much as to how many goals he kicked, it was more about how he kicked them, with the man dubbed the ‘Macedonian Marvel' proving capable of threading the needle from any angle and with either foot.
For these reasons, it came as no surprise to anyone when he was named as the forward pocket in the Magpie's team of the 20th century.
Travis Cloke – 2005-2016 (246 games and 441 goals)
Some may believe that Anthony Rocca is stiff to miss selection here due to his better goals per game average, but with more goals to his name as a Magpie, we have selected Travis Cloke.
After leading the club's goalkicking tally for four consecutive years between 2011 and 2014, it is little wonder why Cloke finished with the seventh highest career goals tally in Collingwood's history.
Still, one does wonder just how many more rungs he could have climbed if he was able to convert even a fraction of his many pedestrian misses.
Brody Mihocek – 2018-Present (53 games and 90 goals)
After winning a Premiership with VFL outfit Port Melbourne as an intercept defender, Brody Mihocek was swung to the forward line upon being drafted by Collingwood.
Nathan Buckley's intuition has paid dividends, with the 192 centimetre Tasmanian claiming the club's champion goalkicker prize the last two years running.
With minimal threats to his position in the Pies' forward line and a contemporarily deadeye accuracy of 90.53 in front of goal, expect Mihocek to challenge for a three-peat of titles in 2021.
