Peter Hudson
Peter Hudson
Peter John Hudson AM (born 19 February 1946) is a former Australian rules football player, considered one of the greatest full-forwards in the game's history. Hudson was prolific in his goal scoring in all senior competitions in which he competed. Originally from Tasmania, Hudson played with New Norfolk Football Club, in the Tasmanian Football League before crossing to Hawthorn Football Club in the Victorian Football League (now the Australian Football League); following his Hawthorn days he returned to Tasmania, playing for Glenorchy Football Club during which he kicked an amazing 616 goals in 81 games at a phenomenal 7.61 goals per game. Over his career, he kicked 1,721 goals in 288 premiership games between 1963 and 1979, and 1981. His final match was in the 1981 TANFL Preliminary Final for Glenorchy, where Hudson, who had made a brief comeback with two rounds remaining due to Glenorchy having a string of injuries, kicked 30 goals in three matches, including six in his team's Preliminary Final loss to New Norfolk. Hudson was kept goalless just four times during his career in premiership matches by Richmond's Barry Richardson in Round 7 of 1969, Collingwood's Ian Cooper in Round 2 of 1974, Carlton's Rod Austin in Round 14 of 1977 and in the TANFL, Bruce Greenhill of Sandy Bay in 1978. Some sources list Hudson as playing 107 games and kicking 769 goals for Glenorchy for a TANFL total of 185 games and 1,146 goals, and a career total of 314 games and 1,874 goals. These discrepancies arise from the TANFL including goals scored in intrastate matches representing the TANFL in TANFL player's career statistics at that time, a ruling that was later rescinded.If the Tasmanian competitions, representative and night series games are considered, Hudson played an overall total of 372 matches and kicked 2,191 goals – an average of 5.89 goals a game over his entire career – making him the highest goalkicker in elite Australian rules football history. Hudson's ability to win the ball was hard to pinpoint. There were times he seemed to gain possession of the ball ever so quietly and with consistent, nonchalant ease, his tally of goals for the game would gradually climb. Among his armoury of skills, he seemed to have the ability to quietly sneak away from the opposition attendant full-back. Before the frustrated backman knew it, Hudson had taken a nice comfortable mark on his chest for a simple goal.