MITIAMO’S Ryan Haythorpe is quickly bearing down on the 100-goal mark for the first time in his career.Haythorpe still needs another 20 goals to get to 100, but if he continues with his brilliant recent form in the Loddon Valley Football League, he will reach the milestone in just a matter of games.While much of the goalkicking spotlight in central Victoria this year has been focused on Golden Square’s Grant Weeks – who last week became the first player in a VCFL league this year to pass 100 goals – Haythorpe’s efforts have gone under the radar.From 11 games Haythorpe has booted 80 goals for the Superoos, which has him sitting fourth on the list of VCFL goalkickers behind Weeks (106), Hepburn’s Lee Cox (88) and Bairnsdale’s Matthew Davidson (86).The 27-year-old’s last three weeks have been particularly impressive, in which he has raced from 46 to 80 goals following bags of 12 against Bears Lagoon-Serpentine, nine against Inglewood and 13 against Marong.“Obviously, it helps when the team is playing well; I can’t kick the goals if the ball isn’t getting down to me,’’ Haythorpe said yesterday.“When the team plays well I play well, which is always the way as a full-forward.’’Haythorpe’s 80 goals with five home and away rounds still to go come after he kicked 82 last year and 83 in 2008, which were both seasons in which he was the LVFL’s leading goalkicker.“I’m not sure what I put it down to; I’m a bit fitter and stronger this year, so whether it’s just that or the team playing well, I’m not sure,’’ Haythorpe said.“But I think also this year it seems to be a bit of a three-horse race, so if we’re not playing Bridgewater of Pyramid Hill, we’ve been having some big wins, so there’s obviously the opportunity to kick more goals.“It would be nice to get to the 100, even though the ultimate goal is obviously to win the premiership.’’Haythorpe tasted premiership success with the Superoos last year, and he certainly earned his celebratory drinks grand final night after the role he played in setting up the 58-point win.Haythorpe booted eight goals in the 22.11 (143) to 12.13 (85) win, including five in the opening quarter to help the Superoos to a 21-point break at the first change.Remarkably though, the first of Haythorpe’s five first-quarter goals didn’t come until the 20-minute mark.“I started a bit slow, but they all then came with a bit of a rush and before I knew it I had five.“It was a good quarter and nice to be able to set the game up like that,’’ he said.“But again, the ball was coming down to me, so the boys were playing well to get it down there.’’Following his five goals in the first quarter, the athletic full-forward kicked one in the second and two in the third quarter.Haythorpe has built a reputation over the years for kicking mercurial goals, and that was evident on grand final day last year with his seventh coming from a 50-metre set-shot on the boundaryLast year’s grand final win was the Superoos’ first flag since 1999 and ended Calivil United’s run of six-consecutive premierships.“It made it that bit better knocking off Calivil, which had won the previous six premierships,’’ Haythorpe said.“It felt for a couple of years we had been building up to the flag, so it was great to win.“This year I think we’ve improved 10 or 15 per cent, and obviously Bridgewater and Pyramid Hill have improved too, but no disrespect to the other teams, I think it’s a three-horse race at the moment.’’The Superoos sit second on the ladder with their 9-2 record entering their clash tomorrow against the Demons at Calivil.In their 11 games this season the Superoos have averaged a score of 148 and seven times have kicked more than 20 goals in a game.However, it isn’t just Haythorpe opposition defenders have to contend with.The Superoos have another tall option inside 50 in Alex Chapman, who also starred in the grand final last year, kicking seven goals.As well as their 15 goals between them in last year’s grand final, Haythorpe and Chapman also combined for 20 marks.In AFL terms, the Superoos’ two-pronged tall marking forwards in Haythorpe and Chapman is similar to the Brisbane Lions’ Jonathan Brown-Brendan Fevola combination, or Hawthorn’s Lance Franklin-Jarryd Roughead duo.“Chappy and I have got a pretty good relationship,’’ said Haythorpe, who is in the VCFL District Squad ahead of the Australian Country Football Championships in Canberra later this month.“He usually starts at centre half-forward and I’m at full-forward and we’ll swap around a bit during the day.“He’s great to have down there, and that’s probably something we had missed in the previous couple of years.“He’s a different type of player to me; he’s more of a strong man-on-man player, whereas I’m more a lead-up forward, so it’s terrific having him there. It takes off some of the pressure and it’s great to have another target.’’Haythorpe joined the Superoos in round six of the 2007 season.Despite his late start to 2007, he finished that season with 72 goals, meaning he has kicked 317 goals since joining the club. Included in those 317 goals are six hauls of 10 or more.Prior to his arrival at Mitiamo, Haythorpe played in Sandhurst’s 2004 Bendigo Football League premiership side as a 21-year-old, kicking three goals in the 29-point grand final win over Gisborne.The following season he moved to Melbourne for work and played alongside John Barnes at East Keilor in the Essendon District Football League in 2005.He missed 2006 because of work commitments before resuming his career at Mitiamo in May of 2007.“My girlfriend’s brothers were playing at Mitiamo. I was still living in Melbourne, but a few rounds into that season they convinced me to travel up and have a kick, so that’s how I got there.’’However, Haythorpe’s sporting talents aren’t confined to just football.He is also a more than handy cricketer, and in March this year almost led Strathdale-Maristians to a remarkable Bendigo District Cricket Association grand final victory.Chasing Bendigo United’s 9-211, Strathdale-Maristans’ premiership hopes appeared over when they fell to 9-139 in the 73rd over.But in a memorable last-wicket stand Haythorpe and Jacob DeAraugo took the Suns to the brink of what would have been a miracle win at White Hills.However, in the closest grand final of all time, the Suns fell one run short when Haythorpe was run out on the last ball of the game going for an unlikey third run that would have tied the match.Batting at No.10, Haythorpe scored 54 off 62 balls in the grand final.“Football takes preference, but I enjoy my cricket,’’ Haythorpe said.“Looking back at that innings in the grand final, I suppose you’re not thinking about anything else other than what you’ve got to do, and it was just a matter of trying to work out how many runs we needed and how many overs were remaining.“It was a case of talking about how we were going to play each over and trying to get the 10 or so runs an over we needed, and then reassessing.“A few months on you don’t think about it too much because it was a good effort to get where we did, but hopefully, we can go one better next season.’’As well as his grand final heroics last season, Haythorpe also produced a stunning double in the second XI in round 14 of the 2008-09 season when he took 9-42 off 15 overs and then made an unbeaten 111 against Sandhurst.