Jason Dunstall was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 2025 as an Athlete Member for his contribution to the sport of Australian Football
Jason Dunstall towered over his chosen sport as one of Australian Football’s greatest goalkickers, booting an extraordinary total of 1,254 goals from his 269 games with Hawthorn.
In that time he played a significant role in the Hawks’ dominance in the late 1980s and early 1990s, while also contributing to what was a golden age of prolific, powerhouse forwards.
Dunstall was one of only six players in VFL-AFL history to break through the 1,000-goal threshold, with only two players – Gordon Coventry (1,299) and his contemporary Tony Lockett (1,360) – kicking more career goals than him. He was Hawthorn’s leading goalkicker on 12 occasions (missing out in his debut year at the club and in his penultimate season), and won the Coleman Medal three times (1988, 1989, 1992).
Long regarded as the greatest Queensland-born player in the game’s history, he was a four-time All-Australian (1988, 1989, 1992, 1994), averaged 4.66 goals per game, and kicked 10 goals or more on 16 occasions, second to Lockett (22). He topped the ton six times, equal with Lockett, kicking more than 100 goals in season 1988, ’89, ’92, ’93, ’94 and ’96.
His best return in a season was 145 in 1992, just five off the record held by Bob Pratt and Peter Hudson. In that same season Dunstall kicked 17 goals against Richmond, one goal short of Fred Fanning’s record of 18.
But for all his goalkicking accolades, Dunstall valued team success even higher. He played in four premierships (1986, ’88, ’89, ’91). He won two of his four Hawthorn best and fairest in premiership years (1988-89). He was also a three-time placegetter in the Brownlow Medal, finishing second in 1992, equal second in 1988 and equal third in 1989.
Of all the accolades handed out to Jason Dunstall in his 1,254 goal, 269-game career with Hawthorn, one of the most significant compliments came from his greatest challenger in traversing the dizzying upper reaches of footy’s goalkicking heights.
For so much of the 1980s and 90s, Dunstall and Tony Lockett went head to head chasing Gordon Coventry’s longstanding VFL-AFL record of 1,299 goals. And on the night Dunstall announced his retirement from the game, live on television, Lockett was sitting alongside him as a panellist when the former St Kilda and then Sydney spearhead said the Hawks superstar had driven him on his quest in chasing Coventry.
“I don’t think there was a week that went by without me saying to someone (after a game), how did Hawthorn go? I was always keen to find out how many goals did Jason Dunstall kick?” Lockett said in 1998. “We pushed each other for a lot of those years.”
Footy fans were treated to a golden age of champion key forwards at the time. Dunstall came so close to reeling in Coventry’s record before a series of injuries halted the charge, but on that night he urged Lockett to go on and do it, which he did a year later.
The legendary Lou Richards, who watched Coventry as a young Collingwood supporter and revelled in watching Dunstall and Lockett as a commentator, said the Hawthorn champion had some of the attributes the Magpies sharpshooter of the 1920s and 30s possessed.
When Dunstall was in his prime, Richards wrote of the Hawthorn star in the Sun News-Pictorial: “He has a great build. He’s at least two pick-handles wide across the shoulders, has a good reach and a vice-like grip when he gets his hand on the ball.
“His pace is always deceptive, and he has the concentration of a world champion chess player when kicking for goals.”
Dunstall wasn’t an endurance athlete in his early seasons, as his teammates would cheekily remind him over the years, but he was exceptionally quick off the mark in a leading contest, and once he got his hands on the ball he marked it more often than not. He was also an exceptional kick for goal, the result of a fluent technique and a work-rate that saw him want to always get better, from the time he first stepped inside Glenferrie Oval.
He wasn’t always destined for Hawthorn, with three clubs chasing his services after the young Queenslander booted 73 goals for Coorparoo in 1984. These clubs were interested, as Dunstall recalled when he was elevated into Legend status in the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2024.
He told the Herald Sun: “I spoke to Hawthorn, Fitzroy and Carlton. Hawthorn was the stable club, Fitzroy didn’t have the stability, and Carlton never came back to me. I would have picked them as my No.1 choice easily.
“Our jumper at Coorparoo was the same as Carlton’s jumper and all my mates had grown up as Carlton supporters. (Still) Hawthorn worked out well.” It sure did.
Dunstall kicked a goal with his first kick in league football – “a beautiful left foot snap from a pack” as one newspaper described it – and three for the match after being a late inclusion in round 2, 1985, replacing an injured Leigh Matthews.
He played 16 games for 36 goals in his debut season, including eight against Richmond in a portent to the pain he would inflict on the Tigers deep into the future. But his season and Hawthorn’s finished in disappointment after he was held goalless and with only three disposals in Essendon’s 1985 grand final whitewash.
His second season yielded 77 goals, but the pressure was on again after one of his childhood heroes, Bruce Doull, kept him to only two behinds in the 1986 second semi-final. Still, Dunstall was up to the challenge, kicking 6.0 on Doull in the Carlton veteran’s final game in the grand final as the young Hawk won the first of four premiership medals.
“As a kid I was an avid Carlton fan and Doull was one of my favourites,” Dunstall said. “I saw him walk up the race, finishing his career in the worst possible way.”
It was a different scenario on grand final day 12 months later when Dunstall was a late withdrawal, having damaged the ligaments in his ankle in the second semi-final. It left him six goals short of a ton, and he had to sit and watch the Blues get one back on the Hawks.
That fuelled him and the Hawks the following season. He kicked the first of his six centuries, 132, as Hawthorn won the 1988 flag in decisive fashion against Melbourne.
They backed it up in 1989, with Dunstall kicking 138 goals and Hawthorn winning back-to-back flags for the first time in the club’s history in a bruising epic encounter against Geelong.
Such was his impact that he won the club’s best and fairest award in both of those premiership years, and he was a placegetter in the Brownlow Medal in both years.
Just when he looked to be on track for a third successive century, he suffered a fractured skull after accidentally running into Earl Spalding’s knee in the middle of the 1990 season. Incredibly, he was back playing just over a month later, complete with a leather helmet.
The helmet might have caused some mirth for colleagues later in his media career, but Dunstall’s fightback from injury showed how mentally tough he was. He finished the year with 83 goals, even though the Hawks fell short of backing up their success from the previous two seasons.
It was a different story in 1991, as the Hawks won the only grand final played at Waverley. Though Dunstall had to deal with ankle ligament issues that restricted him, he booted 82 goals from 18 games, winning his fourth premiership medal.
While Hawthorn was ousted after one final in 1992, Dunstall produced his most prolific season, albeit coming agonisingly close to two fabled goalkicking records.
He kicked 17.5 in the round 7 game against Richmond, a phenomenal individual achievement, which left him one goal short of Fred Fanning’s 18-goal record from 1948.
His season tally of 145.85, including the 17 day out against Tigers and three lots of 12, was the third highest in VFL history, just five short of the Bob Pratt-Peter Hudson record of 150. He finished second in the Brownlow Medal that year, two votes from the winner, Scott Wynd.
Dunstall kicked centuries again in 1993 (123.55), 1994 (101.47) and 1996 (102.45), with his final one brought up with 10 goals in an emotional final-round victory over Melbourne. The week after that 1996 ton, Dunstall tore his ACL in an elimination final against Sydney, and suffered the same fate in round 8 against Carlton in 1997.
Then, in what turned out to be his final season (1998), he broke his collarbone in a round 14 clash with Carlton, with doubt on whether Hawks fans would get the chance to say goodbye to their superstar forward. But against all odds, the man who had led the Hawks as skipper in his last four seasons got himself up for one final game.
Dunstall announced his retirement in the lead-up to a final-round clash with Fremantle, kicking two goals to take his final tally to 1,254.
The Hawks wanted him to play on in 1999, but injuries had taken a toll on their 34-year-old star. He made a selfless call to retire, not wanting to keep a young Hawk out of the side.
However, Dunstall’s impact on the club and indeed the game was far from over.
His media career on television and radio has lasted far longer than his playing career, and he became a Hawthorn board member, and briefly interim CEO, playing a role in the appointment of a young Alastair Clarkson as coach.
Jason Dunstall was also made a Legend of the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2024, joining Lockett and Coventry in footy’s most exalted company.
Honours & Achievements
- 1988 & 1989: Named in the VFL/AFL Team of the Year
- 1988 & 1989: Won the Coleman Medal
- 1992: AFLPA MVP
- 1992: Named in the All Australian team
- 1992: Won third Coleman Medal
- 2002: Inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame
- 2024: Elevated to Legend in the Australian Football Hall of Fame
Photo courtesy Newspix.
