Callum Wilkie’s first goal for the Saints in his 66th game was certainly a novelty which was greatly celebrated by his teammates who ran from everywhere to congratulate him.
Callum has admitted that in one way he wouldn’t have minded extending the unusual barren run, but other Saints from the past have had longer blank scoresheets.
The most unusual example was that of the late Brian Walsh, a terrific back pocket whose 131 game career sits in the record books with not a single goal to his name.
But Brian Walsh was recorded as kicking a goal – for the opposing team Carlton in a 1958 game!
He grabbed the ball 30 metres from the goal and his kick slewed off his boot and went through the Carlton goal.
He was horrified to see the goal umpire give the two-finger signal that it was a goal to the Blues. Years later, Brian recalled the bizarre incident in the book Heroes with Haloes.
“It was just disbelief. When you know you have kicked it and they pay a goal. Half the time when people say they have touched it they really haven’t. But this time it was different. I think from memory that the goal umpire was suspended after that.”
Newspapers credited one Carlton goal to Walsh. These days the AFL’s records credit the extra goal to Carlton’s Doug Beasy in what seems to be a misguided piece of accountancy political correctness.
On the following Monday, a newspaper photographer set up a picture with wearing a mocked up Carlton jumper as Saint teammate Harold Davies and Collingwood’s Ian Brewer looked on.
On one occasion, Brian thought he had kicked a goal against North Melbourne, but the umpire ruled that he had kicked the ball after the siren had sounded. He also kicked goals in post season night games, but they didn’t count in his “proper” record.
The longest run for a Saint player without a goal is premiership defender Ian Synman (154 games) while Harold Matthews (136 games) and Keith Drinan (135 games) also exceeded Walsh. In more modern times, 1990s full-back Jamie Shanahan had 125 scoreless matches and Wayne Judson had 124.
