Well wishers from on and off the field flocked to Tasmania’s Rohan Baldock on Saturday afternoon after the South Burnie star became just the 12th player in history to kick 200 goals in a season.
But shaky kicking late in the game meant Baldock couldn’t seal the deal until just minutes before the final siren.
“I think I kicked four or five points in a row there from set shots so I just didn’t think it was going to come, but I finally got it out of the way so I’m pleased,” he said following the game.
“It feels pretty good.”
Baldock’s haul of 12 helped his side to a 157-point victory over Queenstown at Wivenhoe.
As the clock ticked down, Baldock’s teammates in the forward line looked for their playing-coach at every opportunity. Baldock said the milestone was a “team effort.”
“They knew I had two to go so they were really searching for me and helped me out a lot, knew I hadn’t had the best day in front of the sticks so i’m really thankful for that.”
The Burnie State League premiership player said the team have their mind focused on finals at this late stage in the season.
“To win the premiership, that’s my sole goal. It has been all year and it will continue to be that.”
Baldock received significant attention in the lead-up to the game but told Fairfax Media last week that much of the hype was lost on him.
“The record is not something that I even think about. It will happen if it happens,” he said.
“It wasn’t until a guy from the AFL website called me after I kicked the 100 about eight weeks ago that I realised there was some interest, and since then I’ve just had people checking up on me every weekend.”
It’s good to finally get it done and go onto bigger and better things
- Rohan Baldock on kicking 200 goals this season.
The all-time goals benchmark was set by Deniliquin spearhead Trevor Sutton, who managed 249 goals in the 1982 season. Baldock has one match plus finals to kick 50 majors if he is to top Sutton’s record.
His highest tally this year came against Ridgley, finishing the match with a 22 goal haul.
Baldock said being a coach draws his attention away from himself and onto the team, but admitted they would take some time to celebrate the milestone together.
“I’ll probably just have a couple beers with the boys, it won’t be anything too big with finals coming up,” he said.
