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WHEN it comes to goalkicking in the BFNL, Ron Best and Steven Oliver are royalty.

They are the only two forwards in the history of the competition to have kicked more than 1000 goals.

Best booted 1624 goals for Golden Square, Sandhurst and Northern United - including topping the century 13 times - while Oliver kicked 1021 for Castlemaine.

So the fact Best and Oliver are the only two players now ahead of Lachlan Sharp when it comes to the most bags of double-figure goals in the Bendigo league since 1978 is testament to the superb output of the Strathfieldsaye star, particularly over the past three seasons.

Since 1978 (as far back as I've researched in terms of complete season game-by-game records) Oliver tops the tallies for most double figure hauls with 24.

The timespan covers Oliver's complete career - he kicked his first double figure bag in 1991 and his last in 2005: coincidentally the day he kicked his 1000^th career goal when he slotted 13 against Golden Square.

Oliver's 13 goals that day spearheaded Castlemaine to a 124-point victory over the Bulldogs. 14 years on it remains the Magpies' last win against Golden Square.

Oliver just edges out Best, who kicked 10-plus goals 23 times from 1978 onwards, but highlighting the prolific goalkicking machine Best was, he was finished by the end of 1984.

Considering there's also two seasons at Boort in 1981-82, Best's 23 double-figure hauls of the timeframe actually only encapsulate 1978 (one), 1979 (seven), 1980 (eight), 1983 (five) and 1984 (two).

Given there's another 10 years of his Bendigo league career that began in 1968 with 14 goals on debut for Golden Square that is unaccounted for, you'd have to think Best's double-figure bags in total would have to be somewhere up around the 50-mark.

Extraordinary - just like the performance in his final game when Best kicked 11 goals in Northern United's 1984 grand final win over Eaglehawk.

But for this 1978-onwards exercise, it's Oliver with 24 bags of 10-plus (10 which came across 1991-92), Best 23 and now Sharp on 17.

Sharp's 12 against Maryborough last Saturday took him to 129 goals for the home and away season and a second Ron Best Medal.

Sharp's career can be broken down into two sections - pre and post knee reconstruction.

A foundation player with the Storm in 2009, Sharp had kicked 333 goals from his senior debut until tearing his anterior cruciate ligament at Golden Square in round 3 of 2016.

Up until that stage of his career - about 110 games - Sharp had slotted at least 10 goals twice: 12 against Castlemaine in round five of 2012 and another dozen against Kangaroo Flat in round 18 the following year.

Yet in 49 games post knee reconstruction Sharp has created constant goalkicking headlines for his feats in what has been a remarkable comeback story.

Feasting on the silver service from further up the ground that has so often rendered his opponent helpless, Sharp's bag of 12 last Saturday was his 15^th tally of 10-plus goals post his knee reconstruction.

Since returning to the field in 2017 after his 2016 was wiped out Sharp has kicked 345 goals a stunning average of 7.0 per match.

Sharp's record of 15 bags of 10-plus since his knee reconstructions features five against Maryborough, four against Castlemaine, two against Kyneton and Kangaroo Flat and one each against Eaglehawk and South Bendigo.

While Best's and Oliver's goalkicking feats are well in the past, a more modern comparison to Sharp is former Golden Square superboot Grant Weeks - with the pair no doubt to be alongside each other in the forward line when the BFNL announces its Team of the Decade later this year.

Through his three seasons at Wade Street, Weeks - who like Sharp is a triple BFNL premiership player - booted 451 goals that featured 16 games of 10-plus between 2010 and 2012.

Those 451 goals came from just 59 games at an average of 7.6, which still has me scratching my head as to why Weeks didn't win even just one Michelsen Medal like Sharp did in 2017.

And for that matter, the same goes for Best and Oliver.

Daryl Gilmore - 9

Matt Gretgrix - 9

Andrew McClellan - 8

Justin Maddern - 7

Steve McKerrow - 7

Des Charles - 5

Gavin Exell - 5

John Price - 5

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