NSW club football legend Maurice Goolagong reflects with pride on high-flying career

Guest Author Published July 27, 2022 at 7.59am (AWST)

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Maurice Goolagong is an Australian football legend on the NSW Central Coast.

Affectionately known as the 'park footy Plugger', Goolagong became the first player to kick 1000 goals in the AFL Black Diamond competition in 2011.

Perhaps most remarkable about Goolagong's career was his incredible accuracy in front of goal.

In one season, he kicked 112.13, going at a goal-kicking percentage of 89.6 per cent.

By contrast Tony Lockett - arguably the AFL's best shot on goal - sat just under 70 per cent.

Goolagong developed his accuracy on goal through an unusual training method as a youngster growing up in the small country town of Barellan, 400km east of Sydney.

"There wasn't much to do as a kid back in those days and I only lived just around the corner from the footy oval," Goolagong said.

"I'd be there all the time and instead of kicking for goal, I'd practice trying to kick the posts.

"I'd work my way around the arc until I'd hit all four posts, that's how I got my accuracy."

Goolagong - tennis legend Evonne Goolagong's nephew - started as a centre-half-back, where he won a league best-and-fairest in the U18s while playing for North Wagga.

A move to full-forward would prove a masterstroke as he dominated the forward-fifty for Woy Woy and later Terrigal-Avoca.

In 2001, he kicked 25 goals for Terrigal-Avoca when he was chasing the league goal-kicking award.

"I was behind the leading goalkicker by 12 goals, going into the last round and I ended up winning by six," Goolagong said.

"I told the boys to just stay clear of the forward line and they pretty much fed me all day."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiC1fuwUUjU

Goolagong won the Central Coast AFL's leading goal-kicker award twice, then topped the AFL Black Diamond leading goal-kicker list on six consecutive occasions in the early 2000s, and again in 2011.

"My strengths were reading the play of the ball and my body - I played at around 120kg and I just knew when to bump and when to take off," he said.

"I actually had a couple of scouts from the Sydney Swans look at me, but obviously my weight was the biggest issue, which turned them away."

Despite some incredible individual accolades, Goolagong said being a part of the first-ever premiership winning team in the Black Diamond Football League was his most cherished memory.

"(Terrigal-Avoca) were the last team to win the Central Coast competition and the first team to win after they amalgamated with the Newcastle comp," he said.

Goolagong looks back on his career with pride and gives back to the game by helping local clubs around the region.

"I go and help out different football clubs and always put my hand up to do it - I just love it and help out wherever and whenever I can."