Print this pageShut down the s's leading goalkicker for the second week in a row, in a final which will be your second game in the past three seasons. It's a tough task. That is the duty likely to face Central Districts defender Jeremy Aufderheidge when the Bulldogs take on Sturt in the SANFL qualifying final at Adelaide Oval on Sunday.
Not only has Brant Chambers been far and away the league's dominant forward force this year, but he's also closing in on his second 100-goal season in a row.
Daunting though that is for Central and Sturt's opponents for the rest of the finals, rivals will be reassured by the fact that dominant full-forwards often don't kick their teams to a premiership.
A player has kicked 100 goals or more (in minor rounds and finals) 12 times in the past 30 SANFL seasons but on only half of those occasions did the centurion's team win the flag.
Those six successes were all by Port Adelaide – spearheaded by Tim Evans in the early 1980s and Scott Hodges in the 1990s – during an era in which Magpies teams were dominant in every position.
Sturt full-forward Chambers knows premierships are not won by the efforts of one man.
Chambers booted 106 goals in the minor rounds in 2007 and six more in the Double Blues' elimination final loss to this year's minor premiers Glenelg.
This year, his minor round total was 97. But, thanks to a double chance, "Chambo" will have more than one chance to add to that tally in the finals series.
Sturt fans hope their power forward can do what Evans did for the Magpies in 1981 and kick them through September and down to the West End brewery to see the Double Blues adorn the chimney in October.
Sturt meets Central District in a qualifying final at Adelaide Oval from 3.10pm on Sunday with Bulldogs defender Aufderheide likely to line up on Chambers.
In his first league game since 2006, Aufderheide held Chambers to "just" four goals in the final minor round last weekend.
Sunday's double header at Adelaide Oval begins with Port Adelaide taking on Norwood in an elimination final from 12.10pm.
Courtesy of The Advertiser
Story by Tom Zed