DARREN MONCRIEFF
Saturday, July 5, 2008
IT IS regarded as one of the great goals in modern football, and AFL club Richmond has honoured Michael Mitchell's seven-bounce wonder as its best in 100 years of the proud club's history.
While today we're literally spoilt for choice from a smorgasboard of 'freak' goals from impossible angles in the AFL, if you're old enough, cast your mind back 18 years to 1990 to the AFL's Round 22 at the SCG and compare those with Tiger centreman Mitchell's solo brilliance.
The gutsy midfielder, whose retirement in 1991 came way too soon but had to by necessity due to repeated concussions, was recently honoured by Richmond at its 100-year celebrations.
Mitchell's goal was voted as the best among literally thousands of Tiger goals from 1908.
It came in the final home-and-away game in yet another season of disappointment for the Tigers. Gathering a loose ball at centre half-back, Mitchell broke clear with his trademark pace and bolted through the middle. In all he took seven bounces by the time he was about 30 metres out. He then drilled through the six-pointer at pace on an angle. It won him the AFL's goal of the year.
Mitchell was an accomplished aerialist, too, and in 1990 he completed a rare double; winning the AFL's mark and goal of the year. (For the mark of the year award, he won $5000 worth of petrol from BP.) A giant photo of one of Mitchell's sensational leaps in the WAFL adorns the Claremont clubrooms.
Mitchell, from Carnarvon in WA, began his football with Warriors Football Club in the Gascoyne Football Association, via the club's Colts (Under-17s). He was recruited by Claremont and played with distinction there from 1983. He made his debut for Richmond in 1987 and played 81 games in six seasons for the Tigers.
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Last Modified on 08/07/2011 09:19