WATCH CENTURIONS NOW: Warwick Capper, footy's greatest showman

FOOTBALL'S greatest showman hasn't changed.

"Buddy (Franklin) is the poor man's Warwick Capper," says Warwick Capper in the latest episode of AFL.com.au's Centurions.

>> WATCH EPISODE THREE OF CENTURIONS, SEASON TWO IN THE PLAYER BELOW

"I was the lean, mean excitement machine. Blond-haired, blue-eyed, always ready for take-off.

"Played at the SCG. Small ground. Tommy Hafey pushed the pockets up, get the ball down to Warwick and I will do the rest. And it was Caaaaaappppperrrr, you beauty."

Thirty-five years have passed since Capper became just one of 28 players in VFL/AFL history to kick 100 goals in a season.

Football had never seen anything like this guy, and no one has since come close to his levels of razz-matazz. Think Bailey Smith times 100, maybe times 200.

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Long hair and way-too-short shorts, a flamboyant lifestyle which had genuine advertising cut-through in all markets, ridiculously high marks, big bags of goals, and a refusal to take himself and the game too seriously made Capper Australia's best-known athlete.

"I was bigger than Elvis," he tells Centurions. "I was a bit different, a bit left of centre. Made a fair bit out of it, still one of the most known people in Australia, get asked for pictures every day."

Of the 28 players to reach the goalkicking ton in a season, only 21 are still alive, with the Centurions series celebrating the deeds of those players in their own words.

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In 1986, Capper kicked 92 goals for the Sydney Swans. The following year he kicked the ton, reaching the milestone in a qualifying final against Hawthorn at Waverley Park, a match where he also took one of the game's greatest marks.

"Chris Langford fell forward, and I was up there for six hours, and I thought this is either going to be a free kick or mark of the century," Capper recalled.

"I was just about to mark it, and a trainer runs out and says, 'Warwick can you get out of the airspace, a 747 is approaching'.

"I said, 'Get out of the way, I'm going to win another car here'.

"He was a great player, Langford, but he's remembered for me sitting on his head. I took mark of the century, again, on Michael Passmore. Same as Langford. All they remember was me sitting on their head, giving them an ear massage."

While fellow Centurions Tony Lockett and Buddy Franklin have been largely credited for the entrenchment of the Sydney Swans in the Sydney marketplace, it was Capper long before them who gave the team its presence in rugby league heartland.

In a team coached by the great Tom Hafey, and with Brownlow medallists Greg Williams and Gerard Healy part of the mix, Capper became the most marketable player in the history of the game.

"I was the first marquee full-forward, I started it for them, I probably made the club $100 million in marketing, at least," Capper said. "And I made myself a fair bit along the way too.

"I even put a record out (I Only Take What's Mine), it sold 1.2 million, I got a gold record, even if 750,000 friends of mine bought it. They picked me out. We were only getting 8000 people to a game, and when I finished six months later, we were averaging 28,000, so it worked."

Just weeks after he kicked the ton of goals in the 1987 season, Capper was made an offer he couldn't refuse, but one he now wishes he hadn't accepted.

"I was happy to stay in Sydney, I was everybody's favourite darling, I had jobs coming out of my arse, I was bigger than Elvis. Then Christopher (Skase) comes along and offers me $2.4 million, (to play for the Brisbane Bears), in 1988," Capper said. "I said, 'Well, maybe throw a Lamborghini in, too'."

His three-season stint at the Bears was a failure for many reasons, teammates refusing to kick the ball to him destroying any chance of replicating his Sydney antics on the Gold Coast.

"They (teammates) were jealous," Capper said. "I thought it was going to be OK, but then I had Peter Knights who was a great bloke but he couldn't coach pigs to be dirty. I used to see the ball every half hour, it wouldn't come down, and every time I led, it was over my head.

"They were jealous. Probably Roger Merrett and others, then I had a fight with Michael Richardson."

Asked if he had a contract where he couldn't be dropped, Capper said: "Yeah. They had a 100-goal full forward there and they kicked it over my head, made me work for my kicks. If there was two of us leading, they would kick it to someone else. I think I had two teammates there – one was a trainer, one was an orange boy. The rest hated me. It was a shame. Even the commentators picked it up. In hindsight I should have stayed in Sydney. It cost me three or four years."

It's difficult getting Capper to be serious about anything, at least publicly. "You've got to enjoy yourself, you're a long time dead," is his way of explaining his character.

Eventually in the Centurions interview, he paused for meaningful reflection.

"Look, even back then, I knew it (100 goals in a season) was a good feat, and over the years you think about it, it's great to be in the record books and remembered for the great hangers and for kicking the hundred, because it's not easy to do," he said.

"It is good to be in the record books, to have reached the 100."

And then the real Warwick Capper re-emerges.

"This is the lean, mean excitement machine, blond-haired, blue-eyed, ready for take-off for the Centurions … oh yeah, let's go," he said.

Back for a second season, Centurions catches up with the rockstars of footy's past to unpack tales from the select group who've kicked 100 goals in a season.