THE word got out on the bush telegraph that Howard "Plugger" Lockett's son of a gun, Tony, was going to play senior football for North Ballarat where his father was a legend as a player and coach. It was 1982 and Tony was still eligible to play in the under-16 team.

Senior football in the Ballarat Football League in those days was unforgiving and any youngster playing his first game, let alone a kid still eligible to play junior football, was always going to be physically tested by some gnarly veteran who didn't want to be embarrassed by an upstart. Well legend has it that young Lockett kicked 18 goals in six games, including one bag of six, before returning to the juniors. The bag of six was against Bacchus Marsh in round nine and saw the full-back of eight years taken off him after the fourth goal. Little did anyone know that that full-back would be the first of many who would try unsuccessfully to limit Lockett's influence on the game.

It's 1983, round four, St Kilda v Geelong, Waverley Park. The headlines all week were about the infamous Foschini/Morwood saga where they played without a clearance and it eventually ended in court. Overlooked was the debut of young "Plugger" Lockett, who joined the group of players who kicked a goals with their first kick and finished with three kicks, two handballs, four marks and two goals.

In those early years, Plugger travelled down from Ballarat for training and games; the city of Melbourne was too busy for this shy kid whose real passion was greyhound racing and who is now one of the Australia's leading breeders of greyhounds.

He set the league alight with some stunning performances in 1984, which was remarkable considering the ball wasn't coming down on a platter, and led the goalkicking from 1984 to '86.

His breakout year was in 1987. He kicked his first double-digit bag of 12.3 in a losing total of 14.8 against Melbourne in round four - the first of 22 times he kicked 10 or more. In round 19, against Footscray, he needed seven goals for his maiden ton and delivered. Then he had to kick an eighth to get the Saints over the line, which he did. Sadly, it was also the day our coach Darrel Baldock had a stroke and Allan Davis took over..

I laugh when people say Tony should give something back to football. Little do they realise he saved the club from extinction off his own boot. The number of fans with No. 4 on their backs in '87 was probably nine out of 10. Like all the great goalkickers, the crowds at grounds would change ends, if they could, after each quarter to get a closer look at Plugger. And he felt the pressure - dry-retching before every game.

One game in particular that year highlighted Lockett's freakish ability. It was round 21 versus Collingwood and Moorabbin was packed. Lockett had already kicked his ton and everyone wanted to bring their kids to see this goal-kicking machine. It was cold and blowing a gale from the south, a day that didn't the suit big forwards. We went in after the first quarter 30 points down. The margin was reduced to 11 at half-time, then enter Plugger. He kicked five goals in 10 minutes of devastating football in the third term and you could see the life being sucked out of the Pies. He finished with eight and we won by 49points.

Come Brownlow night in 1987, Plugger and Hawthorn's John Platten were polling head to head. Could Plugger become the first full-forward to win the medal? In round 21 Platten got three votes against Essendon to go three clear and Lockett was understandably nervous. There was no doubt in my mind he would get the three votes against Collingwood to tie with Platten, but had the umpires seen it that way? The tension was shortlived as Plugger received the maximum to tie and neither player polled in the final round.

Pundits would say Plugger was volatile and this was true at times, but if he did the crime he would do the time and get on with it. He despised those who played outside the rules and hung on to his jumper or tried to rough him up.

Take round seven, 1991. Lockett had cracked a vertebrae pre-season and had been confined to swimming for eight weeks. You could only imagine his frustration as he wasn't a great track worker anyway. He trained and looked pretty scratchy to be honest, but was selected.

There was huge hype in the lead-up to this game as Nicky Winmar had served the last of his 10 weeks' suspension from the previous season and the new kids on the block, Adelaide, was making its first trip to a Melbourne suburban ground. From the first bounce, it was poetry in motion. Robert Harvey out to Nicky Winmar then a bullet-like pass onto Plugger's ample chest. He kicked 12.6 in his comeback game and helped the Saints to a record winning margin against the Crows - 131 points (since overtaken by the 139-point margin against the Lions in 2005).

Plugger had four opponents that day, including Danny Hughes, Nigel Smart and a recruit, Rodney Maynard. I saw Maynard after the game and asked him what was it like playing on Plugger. He said that coach Graham Cornes had told him to try to rough up Lockett. He had grabbed Plugger's jumper early and recounted that the big fella had quickly replied: "Grab my jumper again and you can collect your head after the game four rows back."

Plugger played five games for the Big V, and two of those went down in folklore.

In 1989, Plugger had kicked 70 goals in the first nine rounds, then had a four-week spell courtesy of a visit to the AFL Tribunal after an altercation with West Coast's Guy McKenna. He made it back in time for the state-of-origin clash with arch enemy South Australia.

Hawthorn spearhead Jason Dunstall was also in great form and all the conjecture was whether Dunstall and Lockett could play in the one forward line.

Plugger had a groin complaint, but was declared fit and we had a team meeting at the old AFL/VFL House next to the MCG. Ted Whitten was reading the teams out and when it came to the forward line, Plugger interrupted. Tony was always a player who expressed himself out on the field better than in an environment such as this. You could have heard a pin drop as he stood there eyeballing everyone and when he said, "I'm playing in the forward pocket and Dunstall is playing full-forward' the hairs on everyone's necks stood up.

The Vics didn't need any more motivation. If Lockett was prepared to sacrifice his game for the team, that was good enough for everyone. Lockett kicked five and Dunstall four and the Vics smashed SA by 86 points.

The pressure on Plugger to perform at St Kilda was enormous, so when he was courted - and bagged - by the Swans for season 1995, it was a great fit for the big man. The media exposure wasn't anywhere near what he had had to endure, though eventually he became bigger than the Sydney Harbour Bridge such was the impact he had up north.

In his five full seasons, he kicked three tons and won a best and fairest, but the two games he would be largely remembered for were the the preliminary final in 1996 against Essendon when the scores were level as Lockett marked and the siren sounded. He went back from 50 metres and slotted a point to put Sydney in the grand final and kicked six in his only grand final appearance.

And, of course, who could forget round 10, 1999, versus Collingwood at the SCG when he broke Gordon Coventry's goalkicking record of 1299 and became the first footballer to kick 1300 goals. He kicked nine straight that day and picked up three Brownlow votes.     

Lockett avoids football now and is embarrassed to talk himself up. His focus is now on his wife Vicki and four beautiful girls. There is a God after all. Imagine if Plugger had a son - it would be suffocating to live in his dad's enourmous shadow.

Danny Frawley was captain of St Kilda from 1987 to 1995 and played with Tony Lockett for 11 years.