The club that produced goal kicking goliaths such as Dick Lee, Gordon Coventry, Ron Todd and Peter McKenna has earned only one Coleman Medal since McKenna kicked 84 goals in 1973.
In the years since, only Brian Taylor has managed to top the league’s goal kicking tally at the end of a season.
That was back in 1986 when he kicked exactly 100 goals, reaching triple figures against St Kilda at Waverley Park in the final round of the home and away season.
During the 1990s, Saverio Rocca threatened time and time again to reach the magical century and take home a Coleman Medal. But alas, the combination of playing in a struggling Collingwood team and the sheer amount of star full forwards the ilk of Tony Lockett, Jason Dunstall, Gary Ablett and Tony Modra playing in the competition worked against him.
The closest Rocca came to winning the Coleman Medal was in 1997 when he bagged 76 goals during the home and away season, second only to Modra who kicked 81.
Surprisingly, Rocca’s 76 goals still wasn’t his best haul in a season. That came in 1995 when he kicked 93 en route to his only Copeland Trophy.
Unfortunately, he did so in a season in which Ablett decided to kick an amazing 118 majors in only 20 games.
Nearly 20 years on, it appears that Collingwood might finally have a player capable of ending the season atop the league’s goal kicking leaderboard.
Travis Cloke has steadily increased his output in front of goal in recent seasons and has begun 2013 in career-best form.
After six rounds, he is second only to North Melbourne’s Lindsay Thomas with 22 goals (Thomas has 23). Traditionally, small forwards do not win Coleman Medals, meaning that the 180cm Thomas will need to buck the trend that says hulking key forwards rule the day come the end of the home and away season.
Prior to 2013, Cloke’s greatest return in front of the big sticks came in 2011 when his 62 goals and 43 behinds helped propel the Magpies into first place on the ladder after 24 rounds.
At the beginning of his career, Cloke’s style of play mirrored Chris Tarrant’s during his halcyon days at centre half forward, leading high up the ground and onto the wings for his marks.
In the past three years, he has appeared to play deeper inside 50 where his 108kg frame has proven a huge challenge for full backs of all shapes and sizes.
In fact, since he began playing deeper in 2011, Cloke has returned his five biggest bags including a career-high seven against Richmond in round four last month.
On that occasion, Cloke showcased exactly what he is capable of.
In front of 81,950 fans, Cloke tore the game apart with four goals and six marks in the third term.
In fact, Cloke’s 14 marks against the Tigers is the third highest in a game this season and the most by a true key forward.
He currently leads the competition with 16 contested marks (equal with St Kilda champion Nick Riewoldt), while no player has taken as many marks inside 50 (30) in the opening six rounds.
Most impressively, he has troubled the best, even when the odds were stacked against him.
During Collingwood’s 55-point loss to Hawthorn in round three, Cloke took a season-high eight marks inside 50, a feat made even more impressive by the fact that the match was played in heavy rain.
Cloke has developed a strong record against Hawthorn in recent years. He was arguably the difference in the famous 2011 Preliminary Final when he kicked 3.3 from 11 marks and followed it up with six goals in last year’s Qualifying Final.
With five goals in round three, it means that he has averaged four goals in his last four meetings with the Hawks – a team that has beaten Collingwood in their last four meetings.
His occasional inaccuracy in front of goal has been well documented but has subsided somewhat since 2010. It reared its head briefly on Friday night when Cloke kicked 4.5 for the night (the equal highest amount of behinds by a player this season), but on the basis of Cloke’s recent returns of 69.48 in 2011 and 59.34 in 2012, the worst of his problems are long behind him.
So can Cloke take home his first Coleman Medal, and Collingwood’s first since BT in ’86?
Recent history suggests that his next three games will be particularly important.
Collingwood is set to face Fremantle, Geelong and Sydney in the coming weeks.
In the past three years, Cloke has kicked bags of five and four against the Dockers, kicked 6.4 in a match against the Swans but averaged only five marks and kicked a total of 13 goals from eight games against the Cats.
It suggests that Cloke needs to break Geelong’s recent stranglehold on him (and the Magpies themselves) in order to kick clear of the pack.
He certainly has it in him. He began the 2011 Grand Final as if he had been shot out of a cannon, kicking two incredible first quarter goals and ending the match with seven marks despite the 38-point defeat.
Travis Cloke in 2013
Kicks: 79 (Av: 13.17)
Marks: 57 (Av: 9.5)
Contested Marks: 16 (Av: 2.67)
Disposals: 98 (Av: 16.33)
Goals: 22 (3.67)
Behinds: 18 (3.00)
Inside 50s: 28 (4.67)
Goal Assists: 4 (0.67)
2013 Coleman Medal Leaderboard (after six rounds, goals kicked in brackets)
23 - Lindsay Thomas (NM),
22 - Travis Cloke (Coll)
20 - Josh Kennedy (WCE)
19 - Jack Riewoldt (Rich)
18 - Nick Riewoldt (StK)
15 - Stewart Crameri (Ess), Lance Franklin (Haw), Michael Walters (Frem), Jeff Garlett (Carl), Jack Darling (WCE)
Collingwood's Coleman Medallists (Leading Goalkicker Medal 1897-1954; Coleman Medal 1955-2012, goals kicked in brackets)
1898 - Archie Smith (31)
1903 - Teddy Lockwood (33)
1905 - Charlie H. Pannam (38)
1907 - Dick Lee (45)
1908 - Dick Lee (50)
1909 - Dick Lee (55)
1010 - Dick Lee (45)
1914 - Dick Lee (57)
1916 - Dick Lee (46)
1917 - Dick Lee (50)
1919 - Dick Lee (47)
1926 - Gordon Coventry (78)
1927 - Gordon Coventry (88)
1928 - Gordon Coventry (78)
1929 - Gordon Coventry (118)
1930 - Gordon Coventry (105)
1933 - Gordon Coventry (108)
1938 - Ron Todd (102)
1939 - Ron Todd (98)
1946 - Des Fothergill (63)
1958 - Ian Brewer (67)
1972 - Peter McKenna (130)
1973 - Peter McKenna (84)
1986 - Brian Taylor (100)
*Footnote: As mentioned by Jason, one of our readers, the Macedonian Marvel Peter Daicos also came close to winning a Coleman Medal. He snagged a total of 97 goals in 1990, 84 of which were kicked during the home and away season. It wasn't far behind the overall winner John Longmire who kicked 98 goals during the home and away season for North Melbourne. Longmire went on to play in North's premiership in 1999 and last year coached Sydney to premiership glory.
