Tom Papley has became the 12th Swans player to 300 goals – and the first small forward.

The 178cm dynamo, playing his 195th game against Geelong at the SCG yesterday, kicked two goals in the final quarter of the 43-point loss to take his career total to 301.

Papley has pipped Isaac Heeney to this mark, with Heeney’s solitary goal against the Cats leaving him on 297.

Papley had started the season 33 goals clear of Heeney, but after missing 10 games through injury, found himself just three clear after Heeney kicked an equal career-best five against Brisbane in Round 22.

Papley is the 203rd player in AFL history to 300 goals and the 16th among current players.

He joins a list of Swans 300-goal royalty which began in 1928 when, in his 93rd game, a 26-year-old Ted Johnson kicked six goals for South Melbourne against Hawthorn at Glenferrie Oval.

Born and raised in South Melbourne and a member of the Swans Hall of Fame, Johnson was a key forward and Victorian State representative who topped the club goal-kicking six years in a row from his debut season in 1923 until 1928.

Playing in an era in which a lot of players preferred a place-kick when kicking for goal, Johnson became a staunch advocate of the traditional punt kick after infamously kicking only two goals from 14 place kicks against Melbourne at the MCG in 1924.

And in proof of how much the game has changed, Johnson was all of 178cm – the same height as small forward Papley. And Papley is 7cm taller than the great Bob Skilton at 171cm.

Bob Pratt, the Swans’ all-time leading goal-kicker, was second to 300 goals in 1934, ahead of Skilton in 1966, Peter Bedford in 1976, Tony Morwood in 1986, Warwick Capper in his return to Sydney in 1991 after his stint with the Brisbane Bears, Tony Lockett in 1998, Michael O’Loughlin in 2004, Barry Hall in 2006, Adam Goodes in 2010 and Lance Franklin in 2018.

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Lockett was the quickest of this group to 300 goals, posting his triple century in his 61st Swans game. Pratt (75) was next quickest from Capper (83), Johnson (93), Franklin (95), Hall (99), Skilton (156), Bedford (172), Morwood (171), O’Loughlin (190), Papley (195) and Goodes (269).

Pratt was easily the youngest at 21 years 296 days from Morwood, Johnson (26), O’Loughlin, Skilton, Capper (27), Bedford, Hall, Papley (29), Goodes (30), Franklin (31) and Lockett (32).

Papley has four players ahead of him before he will get to 400 goals – Capper (317), Bedford (325), Johnson (385) and Morwood (397).

Hayden McLean has 98 goals after two against Geelong yesterday, while Chad Warner, goalless against the Cats, has 97.