How Good Was Lockett

[bobmurray]

Whilst Lockett will always be looked on as one of Sydney's best forwards..
He was woeful in his comeback year...

He should have stayed retired......

[The Fireman]

I saw just about every game Plugger played..I doubt I will ever see any forward as good as him again...the guy was unstoppable, broke my heart when he left and changed the way I perceive the game to this day.

PS bobmurray..that aint a Gibson.

[matrix]

Never get tired of this footage from the day we overpowered Sydney in the last quarter at the SCG.

around a min thirty he drills a torp/barrel at the swans fans behind the goals

lol

wish id had seen the big man play

[ace]

I dare say that Kosi is much fitter than Plugger ever was. Without knowing him, he gave the impression that he got by on sheer ability.

all due respect to kosi (who is a very good player at his best) he's not an out and out champion of the game like lockett.

as for dunstall, pfft. played in premiership teams surrounded by class whereas lockett was carrying about 8 or 10 of our guys.

That was the point I was trying to get across.
It is easy to get 100+ goals playing in a premiership team like Buddy did last year.
But to do it in a mediocre team is so much harder as Buddy has found this year.
When the rest of the team is mediocre you don't get the supply, you don't get the delivery, you get multiple players zoning off weak opponents, you don't get teammates protecting you.
You do get loose opponents filing in the hole where you need to lead.
And Lockett played all his games outdoors, in all weather, on grounds with poor drainage.
He played much of his career overweight with groin (osteitis pubis maybe) and knee injuries.
But when Lockett was in his prime he was at least twice as good as Buddy.

[bigred]

He first did his groin playing for Victoria on a very wet MCG. The day that they had Dunstall, Lockett & Brereton tag teaming....Which was just bulltish....

Man he was good. His best was just so freakin dominant it is almost beyond description.

Its funny, that day against Carlton, SOS actually broke even. He stopped as many as Plugger kicked...Thats how good that contest was.

Its funny, because really, he underachieved.

Sounds stupid eh. I mean, he kicked more goals than anyone ever has or ever will, but yeah, he underachieved.

If he actually had of trained, done proper preseasons and approached the game in a better frame of mind he could have been 25% better over the journey. Most of his career he was more than ten kilo's overweight! Yeah he was. Used his asthma as a cop out. Got better when he went to Sydney, but he fkn ran the place at Moorabbin.

If you sat in the members @ moorabin, you could see the crowd move in the outer from end to end to watch him.

In the game today, he wouldnt be anywhere near as good. He had a defensive side that was limited to losing his temper and chasing once a game...usually to try to kill someone. I remember him almost unscrewing some poor Fitzroy blokes head once... He could be an animal.

Floods, faster game, better defensive teams would have him beat. Plus, he would struggle to make it through the draft camp in the first place.

He was absolutely brilliant at full flight, the best you will see. While Ablett was flashy, Plugger had the results over his full journey. IMO a flawed genius.

That said, I grew up watching him play and thought he was just freakin awesome. Jeez we would have been rubbish without him for quite a few years there...

[Dan Warna]

Essendon used to play one man behind plugger, one on him and one in front.

dean wallis was often the to sap who got behind him and copped a belting.

however essendon and sheedy were right, stop plugger, stop st kilda

generally strategy piff the ball into the 50 and plugger would grab it.

he made the 50 metre arc look about 25m because he just owned the space at his prime.

then winmar would just drill the ball onto his 9 times out of 10.

guys like coghlan, pekin, craven bowey would just bomb into the zone and pray for plugger magin, winmar would drill it onto his chest like a exocet missile.

It was a different game then but still by the standards of that era plugger was an all time great.

[robbie muir]

For the younger forumites that never saw Plugger play it is hard to explain how good Tony Lockett was. Suffice to say that St.Kilda may not have existed today if not for him. Followers in the 80's went to see St.Kilda just to see Lockett play. He was awesome.

As for the comparison with Dunstall there is none. Lockett was 10 times the player Dunstall was. Don't forget that in Lockett's first 6 seasons St.kilda won 5 wooden spoons ( 1983,1984,1985,1986,1988). In the same time period Dunstall had Brereton, Platten, Buckenara, Judge etc sticking the ball down his throat. i could've kicked goals in that team.

[roxanne]

He's definitely the greatest footballer I've ever seen. He would win us games just from sheer will and desire to do it. I have very bitter/sweet feelings about him though. He was a heartbreaker. If he'd loved the Saints and his team mates as much as our current Captain, who knows what we (and he) could have achieved.

[Darrel Baldock]

I was at that Collingwood game at Moorabbin, in the Animal Enclosure. I think it was Daicos he swung into the point post to break it. Or is that just the years passing which has caused me to add that detail?. Another highlight was kicking 10 on Silvagni at Moorabbin, although SOS had his share of wins too. Silvagni and Micky Martin were the only full backs who ever really gave him trouble. My son could be baby sat with his Tony Lockett video, which he would watch from the age of three, giving us a nice lie in on a sunday morning. He also did a fairly good socks, socks, undies, undies , impression of Lockett lining up for goal. As a result he became a straight if not strong kick for goal as well as becoming a life long Saints fan. The only (brief) threat to this was when Plugger looked like becoming a Collingwood player and my (by then) 6 year old threatened to become a Collingwood supporter. He changed his mind when the subject of where he would then be living was brought up. Yeah, Plugger did have a dark side. Generally uncommunicative with fans, he sometimes would get opposition players down on the ground in a death lock for such a long time you would be pleading with him to let go, lest he kill them and be up on a charge which would put him out of footy forever. Once I was standing at the South Road end when he swung a West Coast player over his shoulder with such force I felt the ground shake from ten rows back on the terraces. Plugger was much larger than life. Whilst I agree with those who say that he would have trouble with the forward pressure sort of game the Saints play today, if we had Lockett at full forward I am sure Ross would manufacture a variation. Over 30 metres he was still a superfast lead. A game was built around him and Winmar's beautiful delivery.

[jonesy]

Never completley understood the SOS rivalry and talk of SOS having an edge on him. They hardly ever played on each other throughout there careers.
There was 89 when plugger destroyed him with 10.7...but to be fair he destroyed everyone that year,if the ball went inside 50,he got it.
Sos played on him the year after out at Waverley in 90,Lockett didn't have a preseason and was the fattest of his career. SOS kept him to 2 that day,but Lockett could hardly run.

Next time Lockett played Carlton was end of 91 at Waverly, he kicked 13. Pretty sure SOS didn't play on him...

92 at princes Park SOS didn't play, Lockett had 6 to half time ,then we had our usual second half fade out against carlton and the ball hardly came down after time.

Unsure about 93....got a feeling Plugger got 5...but again unsure if SOS played.

1995 when Tony went to Sydney they met at the SCG,he stood on SOS's back at one stage,kicked 8.

The Lockett/SOS battles has grown legs over the years,when really it was only 89/90,when plugger tore him a new one in 89 at Moorabbin,then 90 SOS got revenge when we got beat and Plugger could hardly walk early in the season at Waverly

There was no opponent that really troubled him,the best were usually soundly beaten,the others were just spectaculy inept

[bigred]

The Lockett/SOS battles has grown legs over the years,when really it was only 89/90,when plugger tore him a new one in 89 at Moorabbin

I have that game on tape...SOS almost broke even, such was plugger's dominance.

Plugger WOULD have kicked 20 on any other player that day.

[BringBackMadDog]

How about his comeback game against Adelaide when he missed almost the first half of the season. He must have been 10 kgs overweight, could barely run.....and had 9 up until half time!!!!! He only got 2 more in the second half, only because he could barely stand up.

He was a freak, had the best skills I have seen from any player ever at the club. Once saw him snap over his shoulder from around 50 metres and the ball went through post high!!

[bigcarl]

I was at that Collingwood game at Moorabbin, in the Animal Enclosure. I think it was Daicos he swung into the point post to break it.

that's how i remember it

[AlpineStars]

How about his comeback game against Adelaide when he missed almost the first half of the season. He must have been 10 kgs overweight, could barely run.....and had 9 up until half time!!!!! He only got 2 more in the second half, only because he could barely stand up.

He was a freak, had the best skills I have seen from any player ever at the club. Once saw him snap over his shoulder from around 50 metres and the ball went through post high!!

I think it is this game where he said to 17 or 18 year old Ben Hart "If you touch me, scrag me or hold me you won't see the sun go down" He asked the coach to move him at half time.