Most Australian Football pundits figured we would never see another player kick 100 goals in a season, what with the way the game has evolved since the birth of the AFL in 1990 — more handballs, stronger defensive play, etc.

Lance “Buddy” Franklin put the lie to all that by kicking his 100th goal last night in Hawthorn’s final game of the regular season, the first player to do so since Jason Dunstall in 1996 and only the 28th player (and the youngest ever) to reach the century mark in 150 years of Australian Football. Naturally, that goal sparked a big fat 100-goal pitch invasion. It’s tradition down under.

We almost saw a second pitch invasion for Brendan Fevola, but thanks to some first-half accuracy issues, he finished the season just behind Franklin with 99 goals. Matthew Pavlich of Fremantle and Daniel Bradshaw of Brisbane tied for third with … wait for it … 67 goals. Yeah, Buddy and Fev are pretty good. Only Buddy, though, will move on to the Finals Series next weekend.