BRENT GODDE: It's round 16 of the 1993 season and Culcairn are on top of the ladder and Burrumbuttock are on the bottom. Leading into the match you must have fancied your chances of kicking a bag?

SHANNON BARBER: From memory there were three matches left before finals and I think I was on 63 goals for the year. So I wasn't even close to kicking 100 goals for the season. But then I booted 24 goals to take me to 87 and give myself a chance.

BG: I'm guessing in your wildest dreams that you would have never thought you could kick that many goals?

SB: Not after the first-quarter anyway, I only had one goal on the board and I thought that it wasn't going to be my day. I was playing full-forward and I remember there wasn't a lot of space and a couple of teammates were hungrier than Kevin Bartlett after a 40-hour famine. Murray Watson and Dean Smith in particular were goal hungry in that first-quarter.

BG: What happened at quarter-time?

SB: Coach Peter Copley gave us a bit of a spray for not sticking to the structures. Copley was big on discipline and didn't want us to be flirting with our form with finals just around the corner.

BG: In the second-quarter you boot six to have seven at the main break?

SB: Yeah the forward line was a lot more open and once I kicked two or three I got my confidence up and everybody started looking for me as a target.

BG: The third-quarter you kick an astonishing nine goals which equates to a goal nearly every three minutes. The ball must have been coming down thick and fast?

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SB: It was. Big Brad Smith was dominating the ruck and tapping it straight down to Kerry Bahr who would hit me lace out everytime. The only thing he didn't do was put a ribbon on the ball and gift wrap it for me.

BG: So you have 16 goals at the last change. Were there any instructions at the three-quarter-time huddle to get the ball to you at all costs and see how many you could end up with?

SB: I think Copley said to kick it to him because he was in Azzi medal contention. No, that's a joke. From memory he just said to stick to the structures and keep doing what we were doing.

BG: You kick a further eight goals in the final-quarter to take your tally to 24 which is a league record at the time and still remains the highest?

SB: Yeah I think it wasn't until there was about 10 minutes to go and Copley gave the instructions to give it to me at all costs. I was on the receiving end of a few stupid handballs when I wasn't in the best position and it wouldn't have happened if it was a normal game. I think everyone was just keen to see how many I could end up with.

BG: Did Copley say much to you after the match?

SB: Yeah he joked that he was disappointed in me. Copley said Ray Mack holds the record for the most goals in the Tallangatta league after he kicked 28 for Holbrook against Thurgoona one day. Copley said he wanted me to beat that because Ray quite often reminds him about it and he is sick of hearing about it.

BG: Do you remember how many points you kicked that day?

SB: I can't remember to be honest and have got no idea really.

BG: It is true Copley instructed the players to stay on the ground after the match and wanted you to do some extra training because he felt the side didn't get a good enough hit-out and finals were not far away?

SB: Yeah, I thought he was joking at the time but he wasn't. We were about to do a training drill until Poaches (Brad Smith) told Copley he was being arrogant and started walking to the changerooms. Nobody was keen to train so we all followed big Brad.

BG: So you weren't keen to train then?

SB: Put it this way, if Masterchef was back on then I would have been asking for the immunity pin.

BG: I think it was revealed after the match that a lot of the Burrumbuttock boys had a big Friday night and most of them were nursing a hangover that day?

SB: One of the Burrumbuttock boys, Mark Lidgerwood, does a bit of work for my old man as an accountant. Mark told me a few years back that he started off playing on me that day but moved himself off me after I had kicked five because he was crook with a hangover.

BG: How many different opponents would have you had?

SB: It would have been five or six by the end of the match.

BG: How many marks do you think you took that day?

SB: If it wasn't at least 20 I would be surprised.

BG: Culcairn kicked 44.26 to 3.2. Is that the most lop-sided match you have played in?

SB: Yeah, easily.

BG: You went on to kick 100 in the home and away season?

SB: Yeah from memory I was on 89 goals heading into the final round and kicked 13 against Brocklesby.

BG: You are the only player in Culcairn's history to kick 100 goals in the home and away season.

SB: As far as I know I am. Apparently Splinter Lister kicked 99 in 1953. Adam Prior obviously did last year but that was during the finals.

BG: Have you got any memorabilia from the Burrumbuttock match?

SB: The footy club mounted the ball from the match and presented it to me on presentation night. My nan collected all the paper clippings and I have still got them as well.

BG: Obviously kicking 24 goals is an unbelievable effort, especially for an 18-year-old. Did it spark the interest of recruiters?

SB: The following week Damian Drum who was assistant coach and Rob Snowdon from Sydney Swans flew down to watch me play against Walla because word obviously got around about me kicking 24 goals.

BG: How did you perform?

SB: I remember I was crook all that week before the match.

BG: From leather poisoning?

SB: Ha ha, no I had a bout of the flu.

BG: So how many did you kick against Walla.

SB: I think it was two. I was playing on Rod Coelli who was one of the premier defenders in the O&M before heading out to Walla towards the end of his career. I had a shocker and could hardly get a kick. To Coelli's credit he was giving me advice during the match on where to run and what I was doing right and wrong.

BG: So you didn't make a good first impression then?

SB: I still got invited to do a pre-season with the Swans the following summer. I remember Ron Barassi left a message on my parents answering machine the morning of the 1993 grand final to wish me luck.

BG: It would have been a good experience to do a pre-season with the Swans?

SB: Yeah Andrew Robertson lived in Sydney at the time so I moved in with him for a while. Ron Barassi picked me up and drove me to my first training run at the Swans.

BG: Any good stories from training with the Swans?

SB: Dermott Brereton was playing for the Swans that year and you had to have your wits about you otherwise Dermie would try and take you out. Dermie was mad, I'm a scrawny teenager and here is a legend of the game trying to take you out while doing a criss-cross handball drill.

BG: So do you hate or rate Dermie?

SB: Dermie was a bit of a showpony. I remember Dermie rocking up to training with his permed blonde hair, his fluorescent scoop running shorts on with a flip-phone clipped to his shorts. He was strutting around like he owned the place but obviously his record speaks for itself and there is no doubt he was a legend at Hawthorn.